New York’s state legislature has passed a new bill that will require third-party reservation services to obtain permission from restaurants to book on their behalf. The bill, , says that third party reservation services such as Resy and OpenTable cannot “advertise, promote, or sell reservations” on its platforms for a “food service establishment” without a written agreement with the establishments. The legislation makes New York the “first state in the nation to pass legislation intending to combat the trend of predatory software flooding the online restaurant reservation marketplace,” according to issued by the New York State Restaurant Association on June 6.
The bill was introduced in May by Senator Nathalia Fernandez, passed the State Assembly June 3 and passed the state Senate three days later. It now awaits a signature from Governor Kathy Hochul to become law. Fernandez said in the press release that the bill will curb “the rampant exploitation of online restaurant reservations.
” “Between charging exorbitant rates for a reservation, to double-booking reservations, to phantom reservations leaving diners with less options and restaurants with empty tables—the onus is on us in the Legislature to take action,” she continued. Making black market reservations in New York had become a side business, with practitioners snapping up blocks of meal times at the hottest restaurants with the intention of selling them back to people who want to dine there, . A .
