Uber closing Drizly alcohol delivery service

Drizly closing overview: 

• Who: Uber Technologies announced it will be shutting down its Drizly alcohol delivery service beginning in March. 
• Why: Uber, which acquired Boston-based Drizly for $1.1 billion in 2021, said it is shifting its focus entirely to its Uber Eats delivery service. 
• Where: The decision will impact consumers in certain states across the U.S.

Uber Technologies announced earlier this week that it will be shutting down the Drizly alcohol delivery service it acquired for $1.1 billion in 2021 and shifting its focus to its Uber Eats delivery service.  

The company said the Boston-based Drizly will officially be discontinued in March, Law360 reported. Drizly closing will put an end to its short time working under the Uber umbrella.

“After three years of Drizly operating independently within the Uber family, we’ve decided to close the business and focus on our core Uber Eats strategy of helping consumers get almost anything — from food to groceries to alcohol — all on a single app,” Pierre Dimitri Gore-Coty, Uber’s senior vice president of delivery said, in a statement Tuesday. 

The Uber Eats service currently delivers alcohol to 35 states and more than 25 total countries, according to the company, which said the majority of Drizly users also have an Uber account, reports Law360. 

Drizly has previously settled claims revolving around a 2020 data breach

Uber’s decision comes a little more than a year after Drizly agreed to settle a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission over claims the alcohol marketplace failed to safeguard the data of 2.5 million users during a 2020 cyberattack. 

The commission, which made several requirements of the company, had accused Drizly and its then-CEO James Cory Rellas of not developing adequate written security policies or training its workers in data security, even after an incident in 2018, reports Law360. 

Drizly also reportedly agreed to pay as much as $7.1 million in March 2021 to resolve separate civil claims revolving around the 2020 data breach. 

In other food delivery-related news, a New York appellate judge ruled last month that delivery companies such as Uber, GrubHub and DoorDash must adhere to new pay requirements for delivery workers in the state. 

Delivery workers in New York will now be required to earn a wage of at least $17.96 per hour, with the required compensation rate increasing to $19.96 in 2025.

Are you impacted by Uber’s decision to discontinue Drizly’s alcohol delivery service? Let us know in the comments.

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