City restaurant fined for charging above MRP for water and beer

Kolkata: Ruling in favour of a customer, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission recently levied a penalty of Rs 1,500 on Marco Polo restaurant, located on Park Street, for charging above Maximum Retail Price (MRP) for a water bottle and a bottle of beer as well as levying of service charge.

The restaurant was directed to refund Rs 651 which was the excess billing amount along with compensation of Rs 1,000 as well as litigation cost of Rs 500 within 45 days.

Commission President Sukla Sengupta and member Reyazuddin Khan on Monday observed: “The commission is of the same view with the Ld. Advocate for the complainant that it is the duty of the OP restaurant to serve the food to his customers and they cannot charge any service charge to that effect.

The OP restaurant also can not charge more price for the packaging of drinking water bottles and hard drinks as mentioned in the petition of complaint filed by the complainant.”

A complaint was filed by a woman who submitted that the restaurant had charged Rs 30 for the packaged drinking bottle and Rs 260 for a beer bottle, which according to her was “much higher” than the MRP. It was further submitted that besides charging five per cent GST, the restaurant also charged the service charge of 10 per cent of the total bill, which was Rs 4,112, amounting to Rs 360.50.

The restaurant denied this but in their written argument and also during the course of the argument, it was admitted that since the time of pandemic, they used to take service charge from their customers, which the Commission found illegal. The complainant submitted that she had requested the employee of the restaurant to talk to their manager or owner but was not allowed. Hence, she was compelled to pay the excess bill amount, it was submitted.