Florida Senate - 2025                              CS for SB 940
       
       
        
       By the Committee on Regulated Industries; and Senator McClain
       
       
       
       
       
       580-02617-25                                           2025940c1
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to third-party reservation platforms;
    3         providing a short title; creating s. 509.105, F.S.;
    4         defining the term “third-party reservation platform”;
    5         specifying that a third-party reservation platform
    6         does not include certain contractual designees;
    7         prohibiting a third-party reservation platform from
    8         listing, advertising, promoting, selling, or otherwise
    9         enabling a reservation at a public food service
   10         establishment; authorizing the Division of Hotels and
   11         Restaurants of the Department of Business and
   12         Professional Regulation to impose a civil penalty not
   13         to exceed a specified amount for a violation of the
   14         act or of a division rule; providing a schedule and
   15         requirements for the accrual of such violations;
   16         providing an effective date.
   17          
   18  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   19  
   20         Section 1. This act may be cited to as the “Restaurant
   21  Reservation Anti-Piracy Act.”
   22         Section 2. Section 509.105, Florida Statutes, is created to
   23  read:
   24         509.105 Third-party reservation platforms prohibited.—
   25         (1) As used in this section, the term “third-party
   26  reservation platform” means a website, mobile application, or
   27  other Internet service that satisfies all of the following:
   28         (a) Offers or arranges for a reservation at a public food
   29  service establishment for on-premises service.
   30         (b) Is owned and operated by a person other than the owner
   31  of the public food service establishment.
   32         (c) Does not have a contractual relationship or agreement
   33  with the public food service establishment, or its contractual
   34  designee, to offer or arrange for a reservation at the public
   35  food service establishment for on-premises service.
   36         (2) A third-party reservation platform does not include a
   37  contractual designee of an individual customer which arranges
   38  for a personal and nontransferable reservation at a food service
   39  establishment at the request of the customer and at no cost to
   40  the customer, provided that the designee shares the individual
   41  customer’s contact information with the food service
   42  establishment, allows the food service establishment to confirm
   43  the reservation with the individual customer, and honors
   44  requests from the food service establishment to opt out of
   45  future reservations created by the designee.
   46         (3) A third-party reservation platform may not list,
   47  advertise, promote, facilitate, sell, or otherwise enable a
   48  reservation at a public food service establishment.
   49         (4) The division may impose a civil penalty on a third
   50  party reservation platform in an amount not to exceed $1,000 for
   51  each violation of this section or of a division rule. Violations
   52  under this subsection shall accrue on a daily basis for each day
   53  and each reservation for each food service establishment in
   54  which there has been a violation of this section or rules of the
   55  division.
   56  Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2025.