The D.C. Council has unanimously approved a new measure that further tightens restrictions on food delivery apps during the ongoing health emergency.

Councilmembers approved temporary legislation Tuesday that aims to benefit D.C. restaurants that have lost business during the pandemic. The bill, introduced by Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, requires third-party apps such as DoorDash and Uber Eats to obtain an agreement with a restaurant before they can offer their food on the app. Washington City Paper first reported on the bill Monday.

A similar law went into effect in California on Jan. 1.

Restaurant owners have complained for months that delivery companies are listing their menus without their permission, allowing customers to order meals from inaccurate or out-of-date menus. When restaurants are forced to cancel orders placed through the apps, customers tend to blame the business, owners say.

Non-partner listings have become central to the business model of some food delivery apps. Delivery providers don’t make money directly from non-partnered restaurants, but they do create the appearance of offering a bounty of dining options, which could entice more users. Customers may begin ordering through apps rather than directly through a restaurant, which tech companies can then use to pressure a restaurant into signing up for their services.

When Grubhub doubled the number of restaurants listed on its platform in 2019, approximately 10% of them were official partners, the company told shareholders. (Grubhub later said it stopped adding merchants without their permission.) Postmates, which is owned by Uber, said in a regulatory filing last fall that its platform boasted 700,000 businesses — but just 115,000 were official partners, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Some apps have even begun to swipe web traffic from restaurant websites, Washington City Paper reported.

“Google is going to index Grubhub higher than our website,” Baan Siam managing partner Tom Healy told City Paper. “They start absorbing our market footprint. Once they’ve absorbed everybody, they’ve got you under their thumb. If you don’t want to partner up, they threaten to delist you from a platform that ‘everyone is used to using.'”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Uber says, “Adding restaurants to [Uber] Eats gives restaurants more exposure to the wide network of Uber users, and they can opt out of the program quickly and easily, or become Uber Eats partners.”

A DoorDash spokesperson says the company “is proud of the role our platform plays in helping restaurants connect with new customers and generate additional revenue, particularly during these tough times.” A representative for Grubhub says the company supports the legislation and “encourage[s] the city to make it permanent.”

The D.C. Council passed a temporary 15% cap on delivery app commissions in May after restaurant owners said the fees — which are invisible to customers — were chewing up their profits during the pandemic. Seattle, San Francisco and Portland have approved similar rules.

D.C.’s new law goes into effect March 10 and will remain in effect for 225 days, but McDuffie told City Paper he’s considering introducing permanent legislation.

This story was updated to include statements from Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber.