Fifty States, Fifty Different Rules for What You’re Allowed to Charge

A Tampa diner noticed a 3% “venue fee” on her bill this summer at RO in Hyde Park, even though the charge did not appear anywhere on the menu. She posted about it on Nextdoor, and restaurant staff reportedly told her other nearby spots were doing the same thing.² The complaint spread just days before Florida’s new disclosure law took effect on July 1. After that date, the same fee, presented the same way, would have violated the law.¹

Restaurant operators had already fought this battle once at the federal level and won. In December 2024, the FTC finalized its long-debated “junk fees” rule for hidden charges at hotels and live-event ticket sellers, but it excluded restaurants after heavy lobbying from the National Restaurant Association.⁸ NRA president Michelle Korsmo called the outcome a major victory for the thousands of operators who had pushed back.⁸

That victory did not settle the issue. Since then, Florida, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, California, and New York have each written restaurant fee disclosure rules on different timelines and with different definitions of adequate disclosure.

The result is not a national ban on restaurant fees, but a fragmented disclosure regime. For operators, the harder question is no longer whether a fee is allowed; it is which version of disclosure each state expects, and whether a menu, receipt, or point-of-sale system can satisfy all of them at once.

No Two States Define “Disclosed” the Same Way

Florida’s law, effective July 1, requires notice of any added “operations charge” to appear in a font no smaller than the rest of the menu. Receipts must also list each charge, gratuity, service fee, and sales tax on separate lines.¹ There is no exemption for small, independent restaurants. Samantha Padgett, a lobbyist for the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association who backed the bill, said customers should always know what they are being charged and why.¹ Even she acknowledged that execution matters as much as intent. Enforcement sits with a state agency that has not yet explained how, or how often, it will check compliance.¹

Colorado’s rule, effective January 1, 2026, goes beyond visibility. Operators must also explain how the service charge is distributed after it is collected, a disclosure Florida’s law does not require.³

Illinois takes a different path. Its junk fee ban, signed by Governor JB Pritzker, does not take effect until January 1, 2027,⁴ and it carves out exemptions for retail and food service that differ from those in Florida or Colorado. It also omits a private right of action that would let individual diners sue.⁵

Massachusetts already had its own regulations in force by September 2025, and they take a different legal shape: restaurants must show one total price that includes the fee, rather than adding the fee as a separate line item. If they get it wrong, customers can sue directly under the state’s consumer protection law.⁶

California’s approach starts from the opposite premise. Under SB 478, hidden mandatory fees are banned by default across nearly every industry. Restaurants avoid that default ban only if they meet a narrower exemption created by SB 1524, which requires the fee to be clearly and conspicuously disclosed, with an explanation of its purpose, wherever a price appears.⁷

The Same Receipt Line, Six Different Legal Answers

For multi-state operators, the practical problem is that the same fee can require different treatment in different places. Florida may require a separate receipt line. Massachusetts may require the fee to be built into the displayed total. Colorado may require an explanation of where the money goes. A national point-of-sale template built around one rule will not automatically satisfy the others.

What This Means Going Into Fall

None of these laws bans a service charge, delivery fee, or automatic gratuity outright. Instead, each assumes operators are better off disclosing a fee clearly than defending it after a customer complains. RO in Hyde Park shows how quickly that assumption can be tested: a fee that was legal one week can become a viral complaint and a compliance problem the next.

Diners have tolerated service charges for years when restaurants are upfront about them. The operational burden now is that “upfront” no longer means the same thing everywhere. Multi-state operators have to track different font requirements, receipt formats, explanations, and effective dates, then build menus and point-of-sale systems that can adapt before the next legislature adds another rule.

1. McKenna Schueler, “New Florida law will require transparency in restaurant service charges,” Orlando Weekly, June 29, 2026.
2. “Additional surcharge at Tampa restaurant surprises customers, parent company says it’s a ‘venue fee,’” WFLA, June 25, 2026.
3. Victoria L. Vish, “Service Charges in Hospitality – Recap of 2025,” National Law Review, Dec. 30, 2025.
4. Adam Harrington, “Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signs ban on junk fees, other consumer protections into law,” CBS News Chicago, June 25, 2026.
5. Theresa Y. Kananen, “Illinois Adopts a New Junk Fee Ban Act,” Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, May 29, 2026.
6. Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, “Junk Fees Regulations: Tips for Restaurants,” effective Sept. 2, 2025.
7. “Junk Fee Ban Now Exempts Restaurant Surcharges,” Fox Rothschild, California Employment Law, July 1, 2024.
8. Aneurin Canham-Clyne, “FTC excludes restaurants from junk fee rule,” CX Dive, Dec. 20, 2024.