A Mumbai restaurant was fined a compensation of Rs 25,000 to one of its customers after it imposed a compulsory 5% service charge on its bills.
The Curious Case of Cream Centre
It was the Girgaon-based “Cream Centre” owner Prince Cuisines Pvt Ltd. Against which the complaint was filed before a district consumer commission by Yogesh Patki, a lawyer on July 21, 2017.
The commission later ruled against the restaurant and termed the service charge levied on customers as “highly objectionable as well as illegal” and said that “It is the bouquet of additional services that completes the experience of customers who choose to dine in at the restaurant. Building this narrative to collect 5 per cent mandatory service charge from customers is highly objectionable as well as illegal and hence cannot be justified at all.”
As per the order “The restaurant’s act of levying mandatory five percent service charges over and above the food and beverages bills falsely represents that the services are of particular standard, quality, and great as they provide a range of other service including the ambience of the restaurant, air conditioning, crockery, carpets, furniture, staff including waiters for service. that essentially completes the experience of the customers who choose to dine in at the restaurant”.
Restaurant Ordered to Refund Service Charge
Calling the decision to pay a service charge totally personal decision when it comes to the amount of tip and gratuity, the panel has also ordered the restaurant to repay a service charge of Rs 29.
The panel said that “Hotel management has no role in this. It is up to the customer to decide the amount of tip and gratuity”.
Notably, it is not the very first time that such incident has occurred since very recently the Bengaluru court recently ordered online delivery platform Swiggy to pay Rs 5,000 to a customer for failing to deliver ice-cream worth Rs 187.
