Legality of Service Charge (mandatory tips) in India

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whats new in this? afaik, this law was passed years ago.

restaurants do leavy service charge and you can always get it removed. I always get it removed.

except this 1 instance at wok in the clouds in khan market. Their restaurant was listed on zomato pro where customers can get 20% off. Bill had service charge so we asked them to remove it but then they were like, if you get service charge removed then you can't pay via zomato pro. so it was either : pay via zomato pro along with service charges or get service charge removed but won't be able to use zomato pro. I outright asked them whether this was their way of making up the money that they are losing on zomato pro discount to which the manager said yes. Scummy tacitc.

It would be great if this rule completely banned service charges i.e not leave the room for restaurants to even put it on the bill as an option that can be removed.
 
timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Service charge: Choice or mandatory? Diners in a fix | Delhi News - Times of India

In the last two days, while the Consumers Affairs Ministry has asked Hotels and restaurant associations to stop compulsorily levying service charge on
timesofindia.indiatimes.com timesofindia.indiatimes.com
 
with cash tips at least the customer is not paying 18% extra that does not go to the restaurant or the staff.

plus the link above... the weird thing is how are landlords connected to revenue of the restaurant. do these chains pay rent based on sales of their restaurants? it seems improbable. anyhow. lame excuse. they could just devote 10% of the daily revenue as benefits for their staff.

in the end, if they are paying their staff good money, there would be no question of paying them extra for the work they are already being paid for.

india is being incredibly stupid falling for the american culture of tipping. just ask the restaurants and service providers like zomato to pay their customer facing people good wages.
 
If resturants are forced to remove service charge then they will include it in the price of the dish. In the current form restaurants do remove it if you insist that you are not happy with the service.
 
How do I get a copy of the order?

Almost all of the restaurants in select city walk and dlf saket mall levy ''DISCRETIONARY" service charge. One restaurant even had the audacity to print a huge billboard right outside their restaurant that they charge service charge.

I am planning to go there and shove the order in their face and see how they take service charge from me.
 
Many outlets have opened in DLF Avenue, not sure about Select City. Might have missed it.
 
I still don't understand why restaurants have a problem with this. Can't they just increase the price of everything by 12.5% and charge the same as what they were doing by adding the service charge? What's stopping them from doing it
 
So their theory is that if they increase the menu prices, it'll go to landlords and food aggregators pocket who have a revenue sharing and commision on volume basis agreements
 

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