{"id":1548,"date":"2026-07-20T11:14:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T06:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/?p=1548"},"modified":"2026-07-20T11:14:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T06:44:46","slug":"ccpa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/ccpa\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurants Cannot Automatically Add Service Charges &#8211; CCPA Initiates Action Against 41 Restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;<strong>Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)<\/strong>&nbsp;has initiated action against&nbsp;<strong>41 restaurants<\/strong>&nbsp;for allegedly adding service charges to customers\u2019 bills automatically. As per the applicable consumer protection guidelines,&nbsp;<strong>service charge is voluntary<\/strong>&nbsp;and cannot be imposed by default or collected without clear prior disclosure to the consumer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Restaurants cannot force customers to pay such charges, nor deny entry or service if the customer refuses to pay. Any compulsory levy of service charge may amount to an&nbsp;<strong>unfair trade practice under Section 2(47) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Consumer Note:<\/strong>&nbsp;Always check your bill carefully\u2014<strong>service charge is not a compulsory tax<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;<strong>Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)<\/strong>&nbsp;has initiated suo motu action against&nbsp;<strong>41 restaurants<\/strong>&nbsp;for automatically adding service charges to customers\u2019 bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the CCPA Guidelines, a hotel or restaurant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>cannot levy a service charge automatically or by default;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>cannot compel a customer to pay it;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>cannot restrict entry or service merely because the customer refuses to pay; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>must clearly inform customers that payment of any service charge is voluntary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mandatory levy may constitute an&nbsp;<strong>\u201cunfair trade practice\u201d under Section 2(47) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019<\/strong>. Consumers may ask the restaurant to remove the charge and lodge a grievance through the National Consumer Helpline where necessary.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Consumer Alert:<\/strong>&nbsp;Check the bill before making payment\u2014service charge is not a compulsory tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/crypto-tax-notice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Crypto Tax Notice Alert : 44,000+ Notices | Government Detects \u20b9888.82 Cr Undisclosed VDA Income<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/taxation-of-cryptocurrency-vda-india\/\">Also READ \u2013 Introduction of\u00a0Tax on Cryptocurrency in India<\/a><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stay compliant with\u00a0<strong>Crypto Tax India<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>VDA Income Tax<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Schedule VDA filing<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Section 115BBH<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Section 194S TDS<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Income-tax Act 2025<\/strong>\u00a0and professional\u00a0<strong>crypto tax notice reply<\/strong>\u00a0services.\u00a0<strong>#CryptoTaxNotice #VDATax #CryptocurrencyTaxIndia #Section115BBH #Section194S #ScheduleVDA #IncomeTaxAct2025 #IncomeTaxNotice<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tax on VDA<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Income Tax on Bitcoin\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/income-tax-demand-notice-response.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Crypto Tax Notice reply\u00a0Bitcoin Tax Notice Reply\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/itr-filing-dwarka-delhi.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bitcoin Tax Filing<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/itr-filing.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Crptocurrency ITR Filing<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/itr-filing.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Crypto Income Tax Filing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Restaurants Cannot Automatically Add Service Charges<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1402,1406],"tags":[1403,1404,1405],"class_list":["post-1548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-consumer-protection-authority","category-unfair-trade-practice","tag-ccpa","tag-central-consumer-protection-authority","tag-unfair-trade-practice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1550,"href":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1548\/revisions\/1550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caalokkumar.com\/my-writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}