Florida has become the second state to adopt anti-piracy legislation designed to prevent the unauthorized sale of restaurant reservations.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday signed into law Senate Bill 940, dubbed the Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act. Scheduled to go into effect July 1, the legislation makes it illegal to sell restaurant reservations without the restaurant’s explicit consent. Violators face penalties of $1,000 per day for each violation.
The black market for restaurant reservations has been fueled by the rise of software, or bots, that can snag seats at hot restaurants as soon as they are made available online.
The bill in Florida is modeled after legislation adopted last year in New York after news reports revealed a black market for bookings at some of the most in-demand restaurants there, and increasingly across the country.
Similar bills have been proposed in California, Illinois, Louisiana, Hawaii and Nevada this year. Like in Florida, those bills are seeing bipartisan support, fueled by state and local restaurant associations.
The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association (FRLA), for example, applauded DeSantis for signing the anti-piracy bill there.
“Black-market reservation platforms are hijacking the dining experience in Florida,” said Carol Dover, FLRA president and CEO, in a statement. “These unauthorized actors add no value—they simply inflate costs, damage reputations, and leave restaurants with empty tables, unpaid servers and frustrated guests.”
Anti-piracy legislation has also won the backing of the leading online restaurant reservation sites.
“We’re thrilled to see this important legislation signed into law by the governor in Florida,” said Pablo Rivero, CEO of Resy and Tock, and senior vice president of American Express Global Dining. “It’s a critical step in stopping the exploitative practices that hurt these small businesses and their customers and keeping reservations where they belong—with restaurants and real guests.”
Debby Soo, CEO of Open Table, called the legislation’s passage a major win for the hospitality industry more broadly, saying she is optimistic other states will follow suit.
“With such slim profit margins, restaurants need every safeguard possible to protect their business operations and financial stability—the very areas most impacted by reservation piracy. We’re optimistic that other states will recognize the importance of this legislation and take similar action.”
Jonas Frey, the founder of Appointment Trader, a third-party platform that hosts restaurant reservation resellers, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Frey has argued that the sale of reservations gives diners an opportunity to get into some of the hardest to access venues, albeit for a price.
A table for two at Mila in Miami Beach on Friday, for example, was listed on Appointment Trader with a starting bid of $70 (indoors), posted by FamousStation67.
Frey agrees that the use of bots is unfair, and Appointment Trader has recently installed safeguards to prevent those sellers from using the platform. He noted, however, that Appointment Trader earned about $7 million in revenues last year by taking a cut of transactions.
The top seller using the platform in 2024 made about $365,000 by snapping up the most sought-after bookings and selling them to the highest bidder, Frey said.
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