Connaught Place restaurant charged Rs 80 extra as service fee without asking; GST was added on that charge too; CCPA orders it to pay Rs 10,000

A Connaught Place restaurant added Rs 80 to a customer's food bill as a service fee without asking him, and then charged GST on that added amount too, taking his final bill from Rs 800 to Rs 924. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has now fined the restaurant Rs 10,000 for this practice.

The case involves Zen Restaurant, located in B-25, Connaught Place, New Delhi. A customer, Akshay Kumar Malhotra, had ordered a non-veg lunch worth Rs 800 at the restaurant on May 3, 2025. His final bill came to Rs 924, after the restaurant added Rs 80 as a "discretionary service charge" and then applied GST on the enhanced amount. He raised the issue with the National Consumer Helpline on May 6, 2025.