{"id":371681,"date":"2026-08-14T21:32:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/371681\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T21:32:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:32:06","slug":"florida-restaurant-fee-law-what-miami-diners-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/371681\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida restaurant fee law: What Miami diners should know"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"At<\/p>\n

At Don Pan de Kendall, customers are informed about the credit card surcharge at the register before placing their order.<\/p>\n

Amy Reyes<\/p>\n

Miami restaurants love slipping a 20% \u201cservice charge\u201d onto your bill without warning \u2014 and diners are right to be frustrated. Florida\u2019s new transparency law finally forces the industry to come clean before you order.<\/p>\n

FULL STORY: Restaurants have the right to charge fees. Miami diners have the right to know | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are key takeaways:<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s \u201cOperations Charge\u201d law, which took effect July 1, requires restaurants to disclose mandatory fees \u2014 service charges, automatic gratuities, credit card surcharges and delivery fees \u2014 before customers order. That\u2019s a straightforward win for consumers tired of surprises when they get the check.The law doesn\u2019t cap what restaurants can charge or ban service fees. It simply demands honesty upfront, letting restaurants control their pricing while diners make informed choices.Andrew Zelman, a partner at Berger Singerman in Fort Lauderdale, told the Editorial Board the law \u201cfocuses towards disclosure and transparency to customers, eliminating any confusion.\u201d In tourist-heavy South Florida, where visitors aren\u2019t used to automatic operations charges, that clarity is overdue.Diners often assume a 20% service charge is the server\u2019s tip \u2014 but it isn\u2019t necessarily. The money goes to the restaurant, which decides how to distribute it, meaning customers can unintentionally shortchange servers or tip twice.Fine print and quiet fees erode trust. Transparency isn\u2019t just fair to consumers \u2014 it\u2019s good business for restaurants willing to be upfront about what a meal actually costs.<\/p>\n

The summary was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence and using our own originally reported, written and published content. It was reviewed and edited by our journalists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Don Pan de Kendall, customers are informed about the credit card surcharge at the register before placing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-371681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}