Zepto

Telangana's food safety authority (TG SAFE) inspected 16 quick-commerce dark stores across Hyderabad on September 30, 2026, and suspended the FSSAI licence of Zepto's Ram Koti outlet after finding heavy cockroach infestation, fungus-contaminated vegetables, expired and damaged food products, and unhygienic, dusty storage, ordering an immediate halt to operations at that store. The same inspection drive also suspended licences at Swiggy Instamart and Flipkart dark stores.

Zepto, alongside Swiggy and Zomato, moved the Karnataka High Court in June 2026 to challenge the constitutional validity of the state's gig workers welfare law, which would require aggregator platforms to contribute to a worker welfare fund and extend social-security protections. Zepto's own IPO filing separately disclosed a pending labour-related criminal complaint over wage violations dating to September 2024. The legal challenge came amid broader industry resistance to gig-worker protections.

Zepto faced controversy after a viral Bengaluru user post showed a capsicum priced at ₹21 on Android vs ₹107 on iPhone. The Hindu and other Indian outlets confirmed device-based price differences; a subsequent MediaNama independent analysis of 13 products found Zepto showing lower Android prices on 6 of them, with differences up to about 2.25x, and found the same pattern on Blinkit and Instamart. Zepto declined to comment. A Reddit post from an alleged former employee claimed the app charges more for customers with phones worth more than ₹30,000.

In December 2024, India's Central Consumer Protection Authority fined Zepto ₹7 lakh for deploying dark patterns. The CCPA found Zepto's checkout-stage pricing caused consumers to pay more than MRP through hidden packaging charges. Zepto also added paid Zepto Pass membership to carts by default without explicit consent (basket sneaking) and used 'confirm shaming' by displaying 'No, I don't want to save' when users declined. CEO Aadit Palicha acknowledged the mistake publicly.