BILL NUMBER: S9365A
SPONSOR: FERNANDEZ
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to prohibiting
third-party restaurant reservation services from arranging unauthorized
restaurant reservations with food service establishments
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To require online third party food service reservation apps obtain
consent from a food service establishment prior to such app marketing or
making a seating reservation at such food service establishment.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section one: This act shall be known as the "restaurant reservation
anti-piracy act".
Section two: Adds a new section 391-w to the general business law, which
prohibits third-party restaurant reservation services from listing,
advertising, promoting, or selling reservations for a food service
establishment. Third-party restaurant reservation services exclude
reservation distribution channels authorized by the food service estab-
lishment. This section also provides the civil penalty for each
violation .
Section three: Establishes the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
The explosion of predatory third-party online platforms designed to
capture the online restaurant reservation marketplace has simultaneously
forced consumers to endure enormous fees while devastating small busi-
nesses. In most cases, restaurants have no business relationship with
these third party platforms who market and sell their reservations with-
out permission. These predatory third-party platforms use bots designed
to find and secure what appear to be legitimate online reservations and
then sell them at a huge profit. The large fees charged leave New York-
ers unable to afford the experience of new and popular dining options
that would otherwise be available. In most cases, predatory restaurant
reservation platforms do not inform restaurants of their actions or
release unused or changed reservations, leading to empty seats at popu-
lar dining establishments. Additionally, numerous instances have been
reported of predatory third-party restaurant reservation platforms
double booking reservations, forcing consumers to be turned away and
without remedy to recoup their reservation fee.
This legislation is modeled after a 2021 State Law and 2021 New York
City law that has successfully reigned in similar predatory activity by
third-party food delivery apps by requiring online third party reserva-
tion platforms to obtain prior consent from the restaurant to be market-
ed on their online platforms.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall become law on the sixtieth day.