Theres leeway for taking someone with you to do an order, but NOT for having someone else do the order in place of the contracted shopper as mentioned in the original post here.

I dont see IC acting as employer at all in this case. They are enforcing their policy. Even as contractors there are still company policies you agree to when you sign on. Being contractor is not 100% self employed.

Think of insurance and liability. If you take someone with you and you get into a car accident, or something happens to that person, do you think IC is going to cover them? Nope! What if the person you take with you does something to harm someone else? Guess whos responsible?...the contracted person with IC!