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No-show penalty at fine dining restaurants raised to 40 percent

Published: 18 Dec. 2025, 15:55

A year-end gathering reservation notice is posted at a restaurant in central Seoul on Dec. 23, 2024. [NEWS1]

The ceiling for no-show penalties at reservation-based fine dining restaurants will be raised to 40 percent of the preordered menu, according to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday.

From now on, advance reservation-based upscale restaurants, such as omakase establishments, will be allowed to charge a no-show fee of up to 40 percent of the price of menu items for which consumers made reservations, said the antitrust regulator.

Previously, such restaurants could only impose a maximum 10 percent cancellation fee for no-shows.

For general walk-in restaurants, the penalty may be set at up to 20 percent of the total amount charged.

The FTC said it revised its penalty guidelines considering that cost ratios in the food service industry are typically around 30 percent.

The watchdog also revised penalty guidelines for the wedding industry, allowing wedding venue operators to charge up to a 70 percent penalty of the total cost for cancellations on the day of the event, 50 percent for those made one to nine days prior and 40 percent for those made 10 to 29 days before the wedding.

On the other hand, when venue operators cancel reservations, they must reimburse 70 percent of the total cost to users if the cancellation occurs 29 days or less prior to the wedding, and 35 percent before that.

Yonhap