India, Jan. 11 -- Proving that 'Customer is King', diners who had doled out more as 'service charge' for food they had earlier will now get refunds from service providers, in this case, the restaurants. Taking suo motu cognisance of complaints against 27 restaurants, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has fined and asked restaurants to refund the service charge amount to customers and also modify their billing system, since the mandatory levy of service charge had been declared as an unfair trade practice. The CCPA took action based on consumer complaints lodged on the government helpline number.

The complaints were against the Cafe Blue Bottle in Patna and China Gate in Mumbai, for violation of consumer rights and adoption...