TMI Blog2022 (7) TMI 970X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he Court notes that there would be a serious doubt whether the issue of pricing and the levy of a service charge would fall within the ambit of Section 2(47) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 itself. An identical issue of whether the levy of a service charge would amount to a restricted or unfair trade practice came up for consideration before the erstwhile Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission in S. S. Ahuja vs. Pizza Express [ 2001 (12) TMI 903 - MONOPOLIES AND RESTRICTIVE TRADE PRACTICES COMMISSION NEW DELHI] where it is held that There is thus no unfair practice or deceptive method adopted by the respondent as contended by the complainant. In fact the extra levy at 9% would act as a disincentive to the promotion ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the challenge raised to the Guidelines which have been issued by the Central Consumer Protection Authority [CCPA]. 3. In order to evaluate the challenge which has been addressed, the Court firstly take note of the following recitals as appearing in the impugned guidelines dated 04 July 2022:- 3. It has come to the notice of the CCPA through many grievances registered on the National Consumer Helpline that restaurants and hotels are levying service charge in the bill by default, without informing consumers that paying such charge is voluntary and optional. Further, service charge is being levied in addition to the total price of the food items mentioned in the menu and applicable taxes, often in the guise of some other fee or charge. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... harge shall not be collected from consumers by any other name. (iii) No hotel or restaurant shall force a consumer to pay service charge and shall clearly inform the consumer that service charge is voluntary, optional and at consumer‟s discretion. (iv) No restriction on entry or provision of services based on collection of service charge shall be imposed on consumers. (v) Service charge shall not be collected by adding it along with the food bill and levying GST on the total amount. 5. The Court notes that the issue of a levy of a service charge by the hotel industry was noticed way back by the Dewan Chaman Lal Committee which had submitted its report in June 1958. Deprecating the practice of permitting serving staff to t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of service charge, the Commission had held as follows:- 4. The learned counsel for the petitioner instead of touching the heart of the problem, just skirted it. It is now well established that consumer courts on the issue of pricing do not interfere in such matter as it is the discretion of the concerned restaurant to charge the price of the items as they wish. In fact it is the proposal from their side to the customers to accept the same or not. It is a contractual matter between the parties-one proposes and the other accepts. Consumer courts on both the counts cannot interfere in the business terms of the parties and the complaint cannot be admitted. 5. It must be borne in mind that there has to be some difference in price in re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lar. Rather in absence of the aforesaid practice being universally followed, the customer has ample choice to select any one of the restaurants he would like to visit . Much can be said about the contention of the complainant that the kind of facilities like maintenance of hygienic conditions, provision of toilet tissues, hand dryers and others are separately accounted for while arriving at the profit of the restaurant. It is also true that such like facilities are offered by many restaurants but one needs to remember that it is for the trader to decide how to manage its business. The facilities in the form of free telephone, offer of ice-cream to children, magic shows, etc. on the holidays, have, however, not been denied by the complainan ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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