Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: July 5, 2022 at 17:44 IST
According to guidelines set forth by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), service charges cannot be added to food bills automatically or by default by hotels or restaurants.
These are the guidelines:
Hotels and restaurants shall not add automatically or by default include service charges in the food bill;
No service charge shall be collected under any other name;
No hotel or restaurant shall force a consumer to pay a service charge and must clearly state that the charge is voluntary, optional, and up to the customer’s discretion;
No restriction on entry or provision of services based on collection of service charge shall be imposed on consumers; and
Service charge shall not be collected by adding it along with the food bill and levying GST on the total amount.
The National Consumer Helpline (NCH) number is also issued by the CCPA guidelines, which were created to prevent unfair trade practises and violations of consumers’ rights in this regard.
According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution on the website of the Press Information Bureau, consumers have already filed a number of complaints with the NCH against the imposition of service charges.
It was suggested that consumers might request a hotel or restaurant to take the service charge off their bill if they found that they were charging it in violation of the guidelines.
Calling 1915 or using the NCH mobile app allows customers to file complaints on the Helpline, which serves as dispute redressal mechanism at the pre-litigation level.
Consumers can electronically file complaints against unfair trade practises with the Consumer Commission at www.e-daakhil.nic.in as well as with the Consumer Commission.
The consumer may also file a complaint with the District Collector of the concerned district for the CCPA to investigate and take subsequent action.
