Florida restaurants must disclose mandatory fees under new law

Florida restaurants that tack on mandatory fees now have to say so plainly, and the people most likely to feel the fallout are the servers, bartenders and managers who have to explain the bill face to face. Senate Bill 606 widens the state’s disclosure rules beyond automatic gratuities to any required operations charge, and it takes effect on July 1, 2026. That means the menu, the receipt, the website and the payment screen all need to tell the same story before a guest ever gets to the check.

What the law changes

SB 606 was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on June 2, 2025, and it rewrites how Florida treats mandatory add-ons in public food service establishments. The old focus on automatic gratuity is gone in favor of a broader term, “operations charge,” which covers automatic fees or charges other than taxes that a customer must pay in addition to the food or beverage price.

The law does not ban service charges. A restaurant can still add an operations charge, a service charge, an automatic gratuity, a delivery fee, a credit card surcharge or another mandatory add-on. What changed is the expectation that the charge be disclosed clearly and upfront instead of appearing as a surprise at the bottom of the ticket.

The statute also says there is no private cause of action under the new provision. In plain terms, that means the section is not built around a consumer lawsuit. The compliance risk still exists, but the more immediate pressure is operational: if the charge is not explained cleanly, the customer-facing staff will be the ones fielding complaints in real time.

Where the disclosure has to appear

Every public food service establishment that charges an operations charge must put notice of the charge on its food menu, written contract and website. The bill text also requires bills and receipts to contain certain information, and the notice must travel across the full set of customer touchpoints, including menu boards and mobile apps where those are used to take orders.

If a guest orders on a tablet at the host stand, books a banquet through a written contract, or pays off a receipt with an itemized total, the disclosure has to match the channel they used.

The notice must clearly state the percentage or amount of the charge and its purpose.

What operators need to update before July 1

• Menus need a clear line naming the mandatory charge, the rate or dollar amount, and what it is for.

• Website and app ordering pages need the same language, not a softer version buried in terms and conditions.

• Menu boards and QR ordering screens need to show the fee before the guest commits to the order.

• Receipts need to itemize the charge so the total does not arrive without explanation.

• Written contracts for banquets, private events and club dining need the same disclosure language used on the public-facing menu.

• Front-of-house training needs a script that explains the fee without improvisation, especially for hosts, bartenders, servers and managers who are the first people guests confront when they feel surprised.

For restaurants using point-of-sale systems, this also means checking whether the receipt template, ordering platform and online menu all pull from the same language field.

Why workers should care

This law lands hardest in places where mandatory fees are already common: banquet service, private clubs, resorts and full-service restaurants. Those are also the spots where service charges can blur into tipping culture, and where guests often assume a mandatory fee is the tip even when it is not.

That confusion falls on the worker in front of the guest. A server explaining a service fee at the table is usually the one who has to absorb the frustration when a diner feels blindsided, and the anxiety is worse when the guest is already deciding whether to tip on top of the charge. If the restaurant is splitting a service charge with staff, employees need to know that before they are the ones defending the bill.

The pay dynamics matter too. In a business where front-of-house income can depend on gratuities and back-of-house pay is already under pressure, the wording of a mandatory fee can shape how much extra a guest leaves behind. A charge described one way on the menu and another way by the host can change the amount a diner tips, or whether they tip at all.

Florida is not moving alone

Florida’s new rule fits a wider push to rein in hidden fees and automatic service charges. California, Colorado, Florida and Massachusetts have all moved in 2025 toward more disclosure and transparency around these charges. The National Restaurant Association has also fought the FTC’s broader junk-fees approach.