Springfield, IL – Today, State Representative Margaret Croke’s legislation preventing restaurant reservation piracy passed out of the Illinois House unanimously. The Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act prevents third-party services from listing, advertising, promoting or selling reservations for restaurants without written agreement. The bill, which now heads to the Senate for consideration, protects restaurants from costly no-shows and prevents consumers from experiencing reservation fraud.
“At a time when local restaurants are operating with extremely tight margins and working to recover from the impacts of COVID-19, they shouldn’t have to deal with third-party services snatching up their reservations and selling them at a premium, which leads to no-shows and confusion that only hurts their bottom lines,” said State Representative Margaret Croke. “I’m grateful to my colleagues in the House for passing this legislation unanimously, and look forward to seeing it move forward in the Senate. This commonsense legislation will protect our restaurants, prevent consumers from having to pay hundreds of dollars for a desired reservation, and overall support the local dining industry that makes Chicago and our state so special.”
While services like OpenTable and Resy have agreements to make reservations for restaurants, services like Appointment Trader operate without the consent of local establishments. Oftentimes, those services rely on bots to make reservations that are sold to consumers at a premium. This can pose an issue for restaurants when, if these reservations aren’t sold, restaurants are faced with no-shows.
This bill is modeled off of similar legislation New York passed in 2024 to regulate these platforms. California, Florida and Nevada are considering similar measures this year.
Additional information about HB2456 can be found at ILGA.gov. In the Senate, it will be led by State Senator Sara Feigenholtz.