Cahill Secures Complete Victory at Second Circuit for Grubhub in First Amendment Challenge to New York City Customer Data Ordinance

August 5, 2026

Cahill secured a complete victory for Grubhub before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which affirmed a decision striking down a New York City ordinance on First Amendment grounds that would have required third-party delivery services to disclose customer information and ordering history to restaurants without obtaining customers' express consent.

The ordinance, enacted in 2021, required third-party delivery services, including Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats, to provide restaurants, upon request, with customers' names, telephone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, and order contents unless customers affirmatively opted out of the disclosure.

Representing Grubhub, Cahill argued that the ordinance violated the First Amendment by compelling the company to disclose customer information it otherwise would not have shared. Cahill also challenged the ordinance under the Takings Clause and Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution and argued that it exceeded the City's police powers under the New York State Constitution. Since the district court struck down the law on First Amendment grounds, the Second Circuit did not reach those other issues.

In a precedent-setting decision, the Second Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling, holding that the ordinance violated the First Amendment. The court concluded that the compelled disclosures were not subject to the more deferential standard articulated in Zauderer because the required disclosures were not "about" Grubhub's own products or services. The court further held that, assuming intermediate scrutiny applied, the ordinance could not survive that level of scrutiny due to the existence of less-restrictive alternatives.   

The decision establishes important precedent regarding the constitutional limits on compelled commercial disclosures and represents a significant victory for Grubhub and other businesses subject to government-mandated disclosure requirements.