Source: Rule of Law Daily

"The Mid -Autumn Festival family wants to go to the restaurant for a reunion meal. The dishes are more expensive than usual, and they can't order it by themselves." Recently, Mr. Zhang, a resident of Shijingshan District, Beijing, reported to the reporter of the rule of law Daily:Several restaurants have set up "Overlord Terms" for reservation for the Mid -Autumn Festival, and some can only order a package, and some have set up the minimum consumption."Is the restaurant illegal?"

The Mid -Autumn Festival is approaching, and it is very happy to gather a reunion meal together.In addition to doing at home, many people choose to go to the hotel to order a table of food.Data from the third -party platform show that the reinforcement meal for the Mid -Autumn Festival this year is very popular. The number of orders for the theme group purchase package increases by more than 90%year -on -year. Among them, the booking of 5 cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Hangzhou is the most prosperous.

However, the reporter investigated 40 restaurants in Beijing and found that as Mr. Zhang said, most restaurants set up meals or service fees for ordering during the Mid -Autumn Festival.The restaurant sets up the minimum consumption of prices, and a series of "regulations" allow consumers to "headaches".

A number of experts interviewed said that it is reasonable for hotel operators to charge a certain cost due to cost issues, but if they charge high and unreasonable costs in a disguised manner, they will infringe consumers' right to know and choose.The regulatory authorities should strengthen supervision and investigation, and consumers should also retain evidence and actively protect their rights.

Only for the package and not the order

The minimum consumption still exists

Mr. Zhang told reporters that there is a cheap hotel that he often goes near his family. He wanted to set the dinner on the Mid -Autumn Festival night. As a result, he was informed that the Mid -Autumn Festival and National Day could not order dishes.combo.The package is divided into three types: 888 yuan, 1288 yuan and 1588 yuan.

"The price is more expensive than usual. But there are 5 people in my family, and the amount of packaging can't be eaten at all. Many of them are not liked by their own and family." Mr. Zhang said. Later, he went to nearby nearby nearby.After asking the other two restaurants, there were only problems such as set meals and setting up minimum consumption. In the end, they could only give up, "decide to make reunion meals at home."

This Mid -Autumn Festival is not a small number of restaurants that provide packages.

In the past few days, the reporter randomly investigated the reinforcement dinner of the Mid -Autumn Festival in 40 restaurants in Beijing. Among them, 7 restaurants said that customers could only choose a set meal with the restaurant that day, and they could not order themselves. In addition, there were 5 houses.The restaurant has a minimum consumption quota of prices, and 39 restaurants have a certain percentage of private room fees or service fees.

For example, the fourth generation (De Shengdian) stated that the booking room can only order a package from 2388 yuan; Chengfu Banquet (Nanchang Street Store) clearly stated that it cannot be ordered and provided 6 sets of packaging.Xiangshe (Wushudong) provides two sets of two people with 2166 yuan and 2,399 yuan for 8 people.

A industry insider in the Beijing catering industry revealed to reporters that on traditional holidays, especially traditional festivals such as Mid -Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival, the launch of packages and even only provided packages have become the "hidden rules" of many restaurants. The main reasons are: dining on holidaysThere are many people, the restaurant is tight, and the setting of the package is convenient for the back kitchen. It is good to plan and organize it; the package has a greater profit space than a single point.

Meng Qiang, director of the Civil Code Research Center of Beijing Institute of Technology, said that if the package consumption can only be consumed within a fixed price, and the types of packaging can be available are very small, and if it cannot meet the needs of consumers, it will violate the infringementConsumers' right to choose goods or services independently.

In the view of Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary -general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law of the Chinese Law Society, the hotel only provides a package without ordering food.The right to trade in fair transactions is also suspected of violating the anti -food waste law, because the behavior may cause consumers to order meals and cause waste.

In fact, as early as 2014, the business management measures (trial) issued by the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission (trial) have clearly stipulated that "the restaurant operators are prohibited from setting up the minimum consumption."

But the reporter's investigation found that many restaurants are still setting up various forms of "minimum consumption".Among the 40 restaurants mentioned above, 5 restaurants set up the minimum consumption quota ranging from 200 yuan to 1,200 yuan for Mid -Autumn Festival reunion meals.

Suiyue Jiangnan (Western International Trade Store) indicates that the Mid -Autumn Festival order needs to reach the minimum consumption of 3,200 yuan to 3,400 yuan from 10 to 12 -bit;The minimum consumption of 10,000 yuan in 2000 yuan; Xinrong Ji (Jianguowen Wai Street Store) said that it needs to reach the minimum consumption standard of more than 1,200 yuan per capita.

The cost of privately set up private rooms

"Bottle opening fee" has new names

Some restaurants have long criticized the problem of "bottle opening" to consumers' own drinking fees.The reporter's investigation found that this year's reservation of Mid -Autumn Festival reunion meals, the "bottle opening fee" exists in various new names, and has risen.

Ru Nianheju (Dong Gongmian Hutong) said that consumers with the Mid -Autumn Festival dinner with their own wine, they need to charge a bottle opening fee of 50 yuan per bottle;(Nanchang Street Store), the bottle opening fee becomes "wine service fee" and "test fees", and the service fee for each bottle is 200 yuan.The bottle opening fee of the restaurant reached 300 yuan per bottle.

Some people in the industry told reporters that the reason why some restaurants charge high "bottle opening fees" is actually to restrict consumers to bring their own wine in disguise, because drinking is one of the important profit points of the catering industry.However, according to the Consumer Rights Protection Law, it is illegal to prohibit consumers from bringing wine on their own, so some restaurants have begun to think about the "bottle opening fee".

"Restricting consumers' own wine is equivalent to mandatory consumption in the store, which is a mandatory consumer behavior in disguise and suspected of infringing consumer fair transactions." Chen Yinjiang said.

In Meng Qiang's view, some high -end restaurants, the wine glass vessels itself are expensive. Cleaning also needs to pay more costs for operators. According to the principle of fair and paidYes, but the prerequisite is the normal tableware and services that the restaurant needs to reduce the need to damage the restaurant.

"In other words, this cost must be reasonable costs. If you charge high and unreasonable costs in the form of disguise, and charges unrealistic costs, it violates consumers' right to know and choice." Meng Qiang saidEssence

Compared with the "bottle opening fee", the charter fee or service fee is more common.Among the 40 restaurants mentioned above, 39 restaurants set up private room fees or service fees for the Mid -Autumn Festival reunion meal.Among them, 29 restaurants have clearly proposed that they will charge 10%to 15%of service fees, while the other 10 stated that 10%of the private room fee or 100 yuan to 200 yuan is charged.The service staff of the Meijin Restaurant (Aerospace Bridge) said that 15%of the service fee was automatically generated by the system.

In addition to the private room fee and service fee, the Beijing Banquet (Fengtai General Store) and Huaixiang Guojue (Zhengdong Middle Store) also charge a meal fee of 15 yuan per person.

There are 5 restaurants "bundled" the private room fee or service fee with the minimum consumption, saying that if the minimum consumption is reached, there is no need to charge the private room fee or service fee.

The minimum consumption of Xiaoyunyuan private room is 1,500 yuan, and 15%of the service fee is charged.Cooking Xiaoxian Chinese Restaurant · Dongsheng Kailai Hotel said that 6 to 8 small private rooms are free of 15%of service fees.

Inform protection of rights in advance

Supervision intensity needs to be increased

In fact, the catering service fee has been in China for many years.According to the relevant provisions in the Price Law of the People's Republic of China, the service industry operators collect service fees to consumers for providing services.The degree of acceptance of the service contract is charged, and the price is clearly marked on the occasion of the price list.

The service cost standards in each industry and region are also different.In the Guangdong area that is prevalent to calculate the "tea toll", the "tea toll" charging at 20 yuan/person is also a "service fee".The service fee of high -end restaurants is usually 10%to 15%of the total consumption price, which is clearly marked on the menu and bills.

Meng Qiang believes that it is reasonable to charge a certain service fee, but consumers should be clearly notified in advance.In violation of the Consumer Rights Protection Law, it also violates the provisions of the Civil Code.

In Chen Yinjiang's view, the specific problem should be taken to specifically: On the one hand, the service fee should be charged for consumers to fully know the charging methods, standards, and service content before consumption; on the other handPower decides whether to accept the service.

However, many consumers report to reporters that they often look at the bills after the meal, and they find out that an additional "service fee is 10%". If the waiter "does not inform the service fee in advance", the other party will get it.Out of the menu, point to the bottom of the menu "10%service fee", the font size is much smaller than the menu text.

Some lawyers believe that the service fee charged by some catering companies now belongs to the variant of bottle opening and private rooms.After the unreasonable charging fees such as the opening fee were stopped by the relevant departments, they put on the "new vest" and appeared in the form of changing their heads. This is that some catering companies are engaged in "there are policies and countermeasures."

From the perspective of interviewed experts, the Consumer Rights Protection Law stipulates that consumers have the right to obtain fair transactions, and a content of fair transactions is fair and reasonable price.And how to judge whether the price is fair and reasonable is a complex issue, because the catering industry is a low -threshold and full competition industry. The price is adjusted by the market and is independently formulated by the operator.

"The key to this problem is to inform consumers in advance." Meng Qiang believes that the operator should inform consumers in advance, and the method of informing should be clear and clear to ensure that consumers know.Whether the operator has fulfilled the obligation to the informs, it shall take whether the consumer is actually informed as the standard.

So what is the correct way to open the service fee in the additional service fee?

"It should be inform in advance." Beijing lawyer Changsha listed four main ways: informing the phone when consumers call for meals; when consumers enter the store, the leader of the leader will informDuring the meal, the waiter verbally informs it; the most important thing is that next to the price of the menu, the same fonts and the same fonts are used to list the service fee ratio. "On the occasion, etc., the specific details are not well defined, because the consumption scenario is very rich, and the actual situation is different. It is not easy to use a set of rules to uniformly limited. "

It is worth noting that at the beginning of 2014, the Supreme People's Court stated in a reply to Chinese consumers that the "prohibition of self -bringing drinks" and "minimum consumption" formulated by the catering industry belong to the use of catering operatorsIts advantageous position, the unfair and unreasonable provisions of aggravating consumer responsibilities, violated relevant laws and regulations, belongs to the "overlord clause", and consumers can request the court to confirm the "overlord clause" invalid.

To this day, these "overlord clauses" still exist, and they are more frequent during the festivals such as the Mid -Autumn Festival.

Meng Qiang said that the regulations made by the store are a "format clause".The party that provides the format clause must follow the principle of fairness to determine the rights and obligations between the two parties, and shall not use the format terms to create unfair results.For the content of the format terms, merchants need to prompt or explain consumers, otherwise consumers have the right to claim that the clause is not established.

"If the formats provided by the merchant are unreasonably exempt or reduce their responsibilities, unreasonably aggravate consumer responsibilities and restrict consumer rights, these format clauses are invalid in this case.In the case of this format clause and 'Overlord Terms', there are the Civil Code and Consumer Rights Protection Law. "Meng Qiang said.

In this regard, Chen Yinjiang said that catering operators should operate honestly and abide by the law without setting up some unreasonable charging standards.For services that really need to charge a certain fee, a fair and reasonable charging standard is required in advance, and the price is clearly marked to allow consumers to choose independently without knowing it.

For regulatory authorities, daily supervision should be strengthened. Especially after receiving consumer complaints, not only must it solve the problem of consumer complaints, but also in -depth investigations and investigations on corresponding violations of laws and regulations.The regulatory authorities should also remind operators to operate compliantly through public interviews or warnings.

"In the case where consumers' rights are likely to be infringed, consumers must first fix evidence, then negotiate with merchants or report to the Consumer Association and seek help, or complain to the market supervision department, sue to the court, and effectively maintain themselves to effectively maintain themselvesThe legitimate rights and interests. "Meng Qiang said.