HB 543, titled the "Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act," would create a new section of Florida law prohibiting third-party reservation platforms from listing, advertising, promoting, facilitating, selling, or otherwise enabling reservations for public food service establishments unless the platform has a contractual relationship with the restaurant or its designee. The bill defines a "third-party reservation platform" as an online or mobile service that arranges reservations for on-premises dining at a public food service establishment and is operated by someone other than the restaurant owner without a contract to do so.
The bill also creates a narrow exception for a customer’s personal, nontransferable reservation designee acting at the customer’s request and at no cost, so long as the designee shares the customer’s contact information, allows the restaurant to confirm the reservation, and honors opt-out requests from the establishment. The measure would take effect July 1, 2025.
Impact
HB 543 would add s. 509.105, F.S., to Florida’s regulation of public food service establishments and give the Division of Hotels and Restaurants authority to enforce the new prohibition. The division could impose civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation, with violations accruing daily for each affected reservation and each day of noncompliance. The bill would primarily affect third-party reservation services, restaurants, and the state agency responsible for hotel and restaurant regulation.
Sentiment
The available legislative record suggests the bill moved forward without recorded committee debate or vote detail in the provided materials, and its companion measure passed while HB 543 was laid on the table. Overall, the bill’s framing as an anti-piracy or anti-reservation-scraping measure indicates support for protecting restaurants from unauthorized reservation resale or aggregation, but the lack of transcripts or votes limits the ability to identify broader sentiment beyond the fact that the policy advanced through the companion bill process.
Contention
The main policy issue is whether third-party reservation platforms should be allowed to market or facilitate restaurant reservations without a direct contractual relationship with the establishment. Supporters are likely to view the bill as protecting restaurants from unauthorized intermediaries, consumer confusion, and potential misuse of reservation inventory. Potential opponents would be reservation-platform operators and possibly consumers who rely on third-party services, who may argue the bill restricts legitimate online reservation tools and could reduce convenience or competition. The exception for customer-designated designees suggests lawmakers were also trying to preserve personal, noncommercial reservation assistance while limiting commercial platforms.