The new Consumer Protection Act, in effect in Serbia since August 2, introduces strict rules for hospitality venues, menus must be clear and accessible before ordering, and extra charges like cover charges are no longer allowed.
Since the beginning of August, diners at restaurants and cafés in Serbia can breathe a sigh of relief. Most provisions of the new Consumer Protection Act have come into force, bringing significant changes for hospitality establishments, as reported by the portal Vino & Fino.
According to Article 10 of the aforementioned law, every restaurant, café, or other hospitality venue is now required to make its menu available to guests before taking an order. Prices for food, beverages, and drinks must be displayed as a single, final amount. This means that guests must know the total price of what they are ordering in advance, with no subsequent additions.
One of the provisions that has drawn the most attention among hospitality professionals concerns additional charges. The law explicitly prohibits charging for services that the guest did not order, such as the often-contested cover charge, as well as any additional services provided by staff on their own initiative. It specifically mentions costs that are an integral and inseparable part of the basic hospitality service, table setting, cutlery, and napkins.
In practice, this means that if the cover charge was an automatic fee for already-included elements of service, such an item can no longer be listed separately on the bill. Of course, hospitality venues can still structure their prices to include labor costs, service, cutlery, bread, and everything else that their service entails. The key difference lies in transparency, the guest must know the final amount in advance.
Similar rules apply to food add-ons. The law stipulates that ingredients and add-ons that are not clearly covered by the offer and menu, or that are not part of the standard recipe of a dish, cannot be charged. This is particularly important for restaurants and fast-food outlets that automatically serve sauces, vegetables, lemon, or other sides with certain dishes. If these have a separate price, it must be transparently highlighted.
The new regulations also touch on food delivery. Restaurants may have different, higher prices for dishes sold through delivery, but this price must include the delivery cost itself. This allows hospitality venues flexibility in setting prices depending on the sales channel, but without additional costs that only appear at the end of the purchasing process.
