Dubai: Restaurants and cafés continue to defy the law and impose service charge on food bills.
The illegal practice of inflating food bills with an extra fee that hovers between 5 to 15 per cent is persisting despite instructions from the Ministry of Economy on Saturday to withdraw it immediately.
Mohammad Ahmad Abdul Aziz Al Shehi, Director General of the Ministry of Economy, said on Saturday that a service charge is illegal and that inspection teams will ensure an end to any violations of Consumer protection law Number 24 of 2006.
Al Shehi has clarified that restaurants and cafés operating inside hotels and those paying fees to the local government are the only exceptions.
However, Gulf News investigations have revealed that many eateries like Chili's, Japengo, Indian Palace and Paul to mention a few have not started heeding the government instructions while others like Chop Chop, Caesars, Haandi Restaurant etc have withdrawn it since yesterday afternoon.
But customers who refuse to pay the extra fee are excused by restaurants who said they do not want trouble.
For instance, when Gulf News refused to pay the 10 per cent service fee on the food bill yesterday at Chili's outlet in the Mall of the Emirates, the restaurant manager said he will not force customers to cough up the amount.
Japengo, another popular eatery that has outlets across the UAE is still charging customers the illegal fee. The restaurant maintains that in the absence of any intimation from the ministry, they will continue with the practice.
Paul, another popular outlet also had 10 per cent service charge in their bills yesterday, and maintained that the as long as it is clearly mentioned in the menu, they are entitled to charge the consumers.
Bahman, Restaurant Manager at PARS Iranian Restaurant at Mall of the Emirates, said though the restaurant is still taking 15 per cent service charge, they are not forcing any customers who do not want to pay, citing newspaper reports. "We are in the hospitality business. So we have to keep our customers happy," said Bahman.
Randa Barghouti, a resident who dined at Paul yesterday said she paid the service charge because she did not know it was illegal. "If I know I do not have to pay, I will definitely not pay. Next time, if there is a service charge on the bill, I am going to raise the issue with them," said Barghouti.
However, some restaurants have started complying with the law by withdrawing the service charge from their billing system. For example, Chop Chop and Caesars restaurant said they have stopped levying service charge with effect from yesterday.
Robert D'Sa, General Manager of Caesars Group that has eight outlets across the UAE said, "We have taken the service charge off our menu effective from today. I will incur a loss of about 4 million annually because of the absence of service charge. The operations costs are rising and restaurants will have to cut corners."
Paying extra: Other countries
Germany: 15 per cent service charge is added which takes care of tip, charge can be removed
UK: Discretionary service charge of between 10 and 12.5 per cent is sometimes added but will be removed on request
US: No service charge included in the bill, tipping is discretionary
France: 15 per cent ‘service compris' means you do not have to pay an extra tip
Australia: Service charges are not common and tipping is discretionary, but not that common
India: The rules vary from place to place, but hotels are allowed to charge a service fee of 20 per cent
Japan: A 10 per cent service charge is often added to the bill but can be removed
Spain: Service charges are not usually levied and tips are discretionary.
