The Independent Restaurant Coalition supports the Supporting Equal Access to Tables (SEAT) Act, which would prohibit the unauthorized listing and resale of restaurant reservations.
For an independent restaurant, particularly a smaller establishment, the reservation book is a direct representation of revenue. Each table accounts for a fixed portion of a given service, and a seat left empty cannot be recovered. This makes the growth of unauthorized reservation resale a material operational and financial concern.
Third-party services list, promote, and sell reservations at restaurants with which they hold no agreement. Automated systems acquire high-demand reservations as they become available and resell them at substantial markups. The restaurant receives none of this revenue. It absorbs the cost of no-shows when resold reservations go unclaimed. And it receives the customer complaint when a diner arrives having paid a fee to a company the restaurant has never engaged. Operators additionally find their names, menus, and hours listed on platforms they never authorized, frequently with inaccurate information they cannot readily correct.
The Supporting Equal Access to Tables Act addresses these practices. Sponsored by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Rep. Cleo Fields (D-LA), the bipartisan legislation establishes that a restaurant's reservations may not be listed or sold without the restaurant's consent.
The IRC supports the following provisions of the Act:
- A consent requirement. No third-party service may list, advertise, promote, or sell a reservation without a written agreement with the restaurant. Restaurants that wish to work with a reservation platform remain free to do so on negotiated terms. Restaurants that do not are no longer required to monitor and contest unauthorized listings.
- Federal enforcement. Violations are treated as unfair or deceptive acts or practices under the FTC Act, providing the Federal Trade Commission with clear authority to act against unauthorized resale operations.
- A prohibition on liability shifting. The Act bars indemnification clauses that transfer financial responsibility for a platform's conduct onto the restaurant.
A restaurant reservation is not a commodity for resale. It is the restaurant's inventory, and for an independent operator it represents a substantial portion of the business. The SEAT Act is narrow in scope and establishes a straightforward principle. The operators who prepare the food determine who sells access to their tables.