Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Restaurant Reservation Piracy Prevention Act into law tomorrow, December 19th. Please sit down at the dinner table,” Hochul said in a press release from her office obtained exclusively by Eater. “New York is home to some of the best restaurants in the world. Whether you’re returning to your favorite local spot or trying out the latest fine dining restaurant, we need a fair system.” It was approved.
Act S.9365A/A.10215A is a response to New York’s reservation battle. With the rise of platforms like Resy, Opentable, Tock, and SevenRooms, digitalization has turned eating out in cities into a game.
Headings like “”I made $70,000 selling restaurant reservations in New York and I don’t even live in New York. ” This booking has become even more common as clever bots carry out multiple bookings at once (or manually book them) and they are sold only in what is called the “black market”. The bill aims to go after groups like the short-lived #FreeRezy, where reservation slots were exchanged in group chats on the encrypted messaging platform Telegram. Essentially, it created a dining culture where people with money could log in and make reservations once they were released, rather than being able to buy reservations. Reservations can range from a few hundred people to a few thousand, and that doesn’t even include the cost of meals.
The bill does not target legitimate trading platforms such as members-only Dorsia — Only those not authorized by the booking platform and the restaurant itself. Similarly, of course, this bill only pertains to some restaurants in New York, where reservation confusion remains an issue.
However, it is worth noting that there are probably some understandable reasons why the reservation underground world developed in the first place. Groups like r/FoodNYC on Reddit were a place for people to exchange non-refundable reservations. This has been an issue in recent years, for example if you learned at the last minute that you had tested positive for coronavirus. (In June, a Reddit group moderator told Eater that anyone who charges for non-refundable reservation trades could be banned.)
But the reservation game can also result in people missing out on reservations and restaurants having a harder time filling seats.
“New Yorkers shouldn’t have to pay a shady middleman just for the right to make dinner reservations,” Rep. Alex Boas, who sponsored the bill, said this summer. “With this legislation, we will allow families to celebrate graduations, anniversaries, and birthdays without paying $250, $500, or even $1,000 premiums. We will also protect restaurants from increased cancellations. , which protects employees from lost tips. It’s a win-win-win.”
Update: Dec. 18, 2024, 7:15 p.m.: This article has been updated to include clarification that Gov. Kathy Hochul plans to sign the bill on Thursday, Dec. 19.
