A new law approved by the Florida Legislature last year to increase transparency around restaurants’ hidden service charges will take effect July 1, 2026.

The law (SB 606), supported by the restaurant industry’s largest lobbying group, will require public food service establishments in Florida to “include notice” of any added operations charge to customers on their menu, website or mobile application where orders are placed, according to a bill summary.

Added service charges, auto-gratuities or other extra fees on restaurant receipts have become an increasingly common source of frustration for Florida consumers in recent years.

After all, the state has at the same time become increasingly unaffordable for the average working person and family, in part due to an influx of billionaires, higher healthcare costs and a property insurance crisis that is yet to be resolved.

Supporters of the new law, sponsored by GOP Sen. Tom Leek, think a simple notice that a restaurant or catering company charges more than the listed price for a meal — for example, a 20 percent service charge — is really the bare minimum restaurants can do.

“Customers should always know what they are being charged and why,” Samanatha Padgett, a lobbyist for the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, told the Sun Sentinel.

Her group — a state affiliate of the politically influential National Restaurant Association, representing more than 10,000 Florida restaurants, theme park operators and hotels — supports the law. “Our hope is that the law is implemented in a way that provides clarity for guests without creating unnecessary burdensome requirements for restaurants,” she said.

Although the law was approved by Florida lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis last year, the effective date for this part of the law was set for July 1, 2026. It’s similar to other disclosure laws targeting “hidden” or “junk fees” passed in states like Massachusetts, California and Colorado.

What does the new law apply to?

According to a summary of the law, this new transparency measure will apply to any “operations charge” from a public food establishment.

The term “operations charge” is defined as “an automatic fee or charge, other than a government-imposed tax, that a customer is required to pay in addition to the cost of the food and beverage purchased.”

This includes automatic gratuities, service charges, delivery fees and credit card surcharges (i.e., charging a customer more for using a credit card to pay).

The notice of the added charge must be printed clearly on customers’ receipts, and must be listed out on separate lines for each added charge, as applicable — for instance, individual lines for automatic gratuity, service charge and sales tax. On menus, the notice must clarify the percentage or amount of the added charge and its purpose.

The new law also forbids establishments from printing this notice of the added charge in a font that is tinier (i.e., less readable and easier to miss) than the font size of other menu item descriptions or elements.

Additionally, if the eatery doesn’t have a menu, the law specifies that establishments must provide notice of the operations charge on its menu board or “an obvious and clearly readable sign by the register where the customer pays.”

Does the law ban mandatory service charges?

No. Restaurants can still charge customers auto-gratuities and other added fees. However, they must clearly disclose this to customers on menus, websites and mobile apps ahead of orders, as applicable, under the new law.

Are there exceptions?

The term “public food service establishment” under Florida statutes excludes food establishments at temporary pop-ups like fairs, carnivals and food contests, as well as any establishment operated by a public or private educational institution, a church, or a nonprofit civic or fraternal association.

Are there exceptions for smaller mom-and-pop restaurants?

No. Although some small business owners have expressed concern about the new transparency requirements — for instance, the cost of reprinting menus to add explanations for charges — there are no explicit carve-outs for restaurants or catering companies based on their staff sizes, number of locations or revenue.

So, if mom and pop want to add surcharges or other mandatory fees to customers’ receipts for their goods, they’re just as responsible for clearly communicating that to customers as higher-end restaurants, effective July 1.

Who is actually going to enforce this?

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, a historically understaffed state agency that oversees everything from condo complaints to child labor protections, is expected to be charged with enforcing this new transparency measure.

After all, it is the state agency responsible for overseeing public food service establishments that are subject to these new requirements. However, its role isn’t clearly spelled out in the newly adopted Florida statutes, leading to some confusion over the DBPR’s role in enforcement.

“I don’t know who’s going to do it and how frequently and what the penalties are,” Peter Ricci, director of Florida Atlantic University’s Hospitality & Tourism Management Program, told the Sun Sentinel of the new law’s enforcement. “It’s vague by design.”

Because the DBPR is the oversight agency for public food service establishments, however, the DBPR is presumably responsible for enforcing these expanded disclosure requirements and fielding complaints of violations, too.

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