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Business News/ Industry / Retail/  Restaurants in a soup over service charge
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Restaurants in a soup over service charge

Official guidelines dictate that a customer cannot be forced to pay service charge and the entry of a customer in a restaurant cannot be itself be construed as a consent to pay service charge

Several unfair measures such as restaurants making service charge compulsory and adding service charge in the bill in the guise of some other fee or charge would be discussed during the meeting, an official statement said. (MINT_PRINT)Premium
Several unfair measures such as restaurants making service charge compulsory and adding service charge in the bill in the guise of some other fee or charge would be discussed during the meeting, an official statement said. (MINT_PRINT)

Taking note of wrongful collection of service change by restaurants, Ministry of Consumer Affairs on Monday said that it has scheduled a meeting with  National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) on June 2. 

Official guidelines dictate that a customer cannot be forced to pay service charge and the entry of a customer in a restaurant cannot be itself be construed as a consent to pay service charge. 

Moreover, any restriction on entry on the consumer by way of forcing her or him to pay service charge as a condition amount to ’restrictive trade practice’ under the Consumer Protection Act.

Several unfair measures such as restaurants making service charge compulsory and adding service charge in the bill in the guise of some other fee or charge would be discussed during the meeting, an official statement said. 

“In a letter written by Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs to President, NRAI it has been pointed out that the restaurants and eateries are collecting service charge from consumers by default, even though collection of any such charge is voluntary and at the discretion of consumers and not mandatory as per law," the ministry said in a statement. 

The letter further pointed out that the consumers are forced to pay service charge, often fixed at arbitrarily high rates by restaurants, the ministry said, adding that the consumers are also being falsely misled on the legality of such charges and harassed by restaurants on making a request to remove such charges from the bill amount. 

“Since this issue impacts consumers at large on a daily basis and has significant ramification on the rights of consumers, the department construed it necessary to examine it with closer scrutiny and detail", the letter further adds.

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Published: 23 May 2022, 09:34 PM IST
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