UAE | General
Economic department seeks bylaw before taking action
Some restaurants across the emirates add five to 20 per cent service fee on the bill which has been described by the Ministry of Economy as illegal.
- By Zaher Bitar, Staff Reporter, Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 December 29, 2009
Dubai: The Dubai Economic Development Department is awaiting a bylaw that identifies procedures to apply a federal consumer protection law prohibiting restaurants from charging their customers additional service fees, a senior government official told Gulf News.
Some restaurants across the emirates add five to 20 per cent service fee on the bill which has been described by the Ministry of Economy as illegal.
The economic department could not justify why it has taken over three years to find out the illegal practice by some restaurants and why it was reluctant to implement Article 3 of the consumer protection law and take action against those outlets for adding a service charge.
Not allowed
On Sunday, the Supreme Committee for Consumer Protection chaired by the Minister of Economy, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, said that under Consumer Protection law 24, 2006, restaurants are not allowed to add any service charge to a bill.
The committee said it had received complaints about restaurants charging up to 20 per cent as service charge and urged all economic departments across the UAE to enforce the law.
A senior official at the Dubai Economic Development Department told Gulf News: "According to the consumer protection law restaurants are not allowed to add service charge to a bill. Once we receive the bylaw we will immediately inform the restaurants to stop this illegal practice which they carried out for more than three years. The bylaw will be issued in a couple of weeks."
However, he said restaurants will be given a grace period to adjust their accounting and bill system before implementing the rule.
Monitoring
The official clarified that after the grace period the department will take serious measures against offending restaurants.
The department will monitor the prices and the bills of restaurants and prevent any manipulation. It will impose heavy fines and penalties against restaurants that do not abide by the consumer protection law.
The Consumer Protection Department received 2,400 complaints from January to November this year, of which 1,440 were about price increase.
The ministry announcement raised a huge debate among the public.
However consumers can't take action and refuse to pay the service charge at any restaurant, the official said.
"This is to avoid any conflict between consumers and the restaurants. Consumers can't refuse to pay the service charge on any restaurant bill before the Dubai Economic Development Department starts to implement the consumer protection law in a couple of weeks," the official said.
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