It’s a fresh new fee!

Instacart abruptly began hitting New Yorkers with yet another fee this week — blaming sweeping changes to the city’s grocery delivery laws for the new charge, The Post has learned.

“NYC regulatory response fees appear in the order summary,” the FAQ section of the grocery delivery app’s website now reads — a marked change from archived versions of the site just one month prior. 

An explanation of the fee reads that it “helps cover increased operating costs in NYC due to government regulations on delivery platforms.”

A Post analysis of orders prior to Monday found no such fee tacked on. Yet by Tuesday, a fixed $5.99 fee was applied to orders ranging from $35 to $184.

Instacart confirmed the fee took effect Monday and broadly blamed the extra cash grab on “the City Council’s misguided and burdensome grocery delivery laws,” in a statement to The Post.

“For months, we raised clear, data-backed concerns that the policy would increase grocery delivery costs for New Yorkers, but those warnings were repeatedly ignored,” the statement said.

Instacart didn’t specify which laws it was blaming. 

The city’s new worker protections, which took effect under a new law Monday, include expanded minimum pay to drivers working for grocery delivery apps like Instacart.

Excluding tips, the minimum hourly rate is $21.44 an hour with annual increases.

City law now also requires food delivery apps such as Uber Eats and DoorDash to provide customers a tipping option before checkout — and sets the default option to at least 10% of an order’s cost.

The new flat charge joins over a half-dozen fees Instacart already charges users based on cart sizes, distance, order totals and more. 

Those rates are billed as delivery, service and long-distance service fees – the latter of which are incurred if a delivery route takes longer than 30 minutes or includes a toll, per Instacart’s website.

Other fees tacked on include those for priority, self-pickup and convenience (orders under 30 minutes or late at night), as well as local bottle deposit and bag fees.

New Yorkers were quick to blast the added charge on social media Monday. 

“Instacart charging/offsetting on the consumer a regulatory fee because laws were passed that YOU have to increase YOUR contractors pay is so lowbrow,” one X user wrote. “As if the service fees you charge both patrons & merchants weren’t enough.” 

Another fuming customer hit with a “new junk fee” even called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to “go get them” in a separate X post.

The city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection was investigating the matter, a spokesperson said.

Instacart was already in hot water after an explosive study last month found the company used a shady algorithm that charges different prices to different customers for the same items without telling them.

The company ended its so-called “item pricing tests” in December after the report was published – but not before the Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into the embattled company’s membership services.

Instacart agreed to pay $60 million the same month to settle FTC allegations that the online grocery delivery platform deceived consumers about its Instacart+ membership and free delivery offers.

The Mamdani administration alleged earlier this month DoorDash and Uber Eats prevented delivery workers from earning over $550 million in tips by requiring customers to leave gratuities after checkout.

City officials said the change was needed to protect workers’ income after tips plummeted when a new minimum-wage law went into effect in late 2023.

Uber Eats and DoorDash had asked a federal judge to block the legislation, accusing the city of violating their free speech rights by forcing them to “speak a government-mandated message in a prescribed manner and at a prescribed time.”

The companies also claimed the new minimum pay requirements have made New York City food deliveries more expensive and argued the new laws – combined with “tipping fatigue” and “generally rising prices” – will hurt their bottom lines.

US District Judge George B. Daniels still declined to strike down the legislation in a Friday decision — and Instacart’s new fee popped up soon after.

Instacart joined the battle against the tipping law in December – after the company issued “warnings” in media reports that the new regulations would lead to skyrocketing grocery costs and reduced access to food ordered for delivery.

In a December blog post, the company argued that the law “applies a rigid ‘utilization’ formula’ that would require platforms to start paying workers the moment they log in and browse the app — even when they’re not actively shopping or delivering.” 

The company claimed the law would force it to restrict how many workers can be online at a certain time – and eliminate earning opportunities for up to 40% of the Big Apple’s Instacart shoppers – “likely replicating the shift limits and lockouts restaurant delivery workers faced under a similar rule.”