The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) on Monday warned restaurants against levying service charges forcefully on consumers. The department has reminded restaurants and eateries that it is the discretion of the consumers to pay or not pay the service charges as they are completely voluntary. The DoCA has convened a meeting with the National Restaurant Association (NRA) on June 2 to discuss the issue.In a letter written by Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, DoCA to President, National Restaurant Association of India, 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 isVoluntary and at the discretion of consumers and not mandatory as per law.
It has been pointed out in the letter that the consumers are forced to pay service charge, often fixed at arbitrarily high rates by restaurants. 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.