A Delhi consumer commission has ordered a restaurant and an online booking platform to pay a customer Rs 100,000 in compensation for charging 40 to 47 percent more for a buffet than the price shown online. The restaurant must also refund the extra Rs 3,988 and a Rs 254 service charge, Bangla Tribune reports.
The North Delhi District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-I issued the order on 21 September after hearing a complaint by Praveen Kumar Singh over a table booking on 7 April 2024. He had booked a table for 10, and a second booking for four more was made from his wife's account.
The online listing showed a 'cost for two' of Rs 1,500, or Rs 750 a head. After the meal, the restaurant charged Rs 1,050 a head for the vegetarian buffet and Rs 1,100 for the non-vegetarian one.
The platform argued it was only an intermediary and that 'cost for two' was an average or approximate figure, with the full menu and prices visible before booking. The commission said a price displayed before booking creates a reasonable expectation that the final bill will not differ greatly; nothing in the listing marked the price as approximate or non-binding, and the platform's terms carried no such warning.
Photo: Larry D. Moore / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Source: Bangla Tribune
Comments
(0)