The government prohibits hotels and restaurants from including service charges in their food bills

Amid rising complaints, the CCPA has issued guidelines for preventing unfair trade practices and violations of consumer rights with regard to levying of service charges.

As per the guidelines, “No hotels or restaurants shall add service charge automatically or by default in the bill.” There should not be any collection of service charge by any other name, it added.

No hotel or restaurant can force a consumer to pay a service charge. They have to clearly inform the consumer that the service charge is voluntary, optional and at the consumer’s discretion.

Here are the rules:

No hotel or restaurant shall automatically or by default include a service charge in the bill.

There should be no other means of collecting service charges.

A service charge cannot be imposed by a hotel or restaurant.

The service charge is discretionary, optional, and at the choice of the consumer.

Consumers shall not face any restrictions on admission or provision of services based on the collection of service charges.

The service charge cannot be collected simply adding it to the food bill and taxing the total amount.