Richmond —

Virginia’s mandatory fee law took effect July 1, 2025, and most operators have it backwards. It is usually described as a rule requiring restaurants to disclose automatic gratuities. It is better understood as a rule requiring everyone to advertise an all-in price, from which restaurants and hotels get a specific, narrower exit.

The general rule

§ 59.1-608(A):

“No supplier shall, in connection with a consumer transaction, advertise or display a price for goods or services without clearly and conspicuously displaying the total price, which shall include all mandatory fees or surcharges.”

“Mandatory fees or surcharges” means anything that must be paid to buy the advertised thing. It excludes government taxes and fees, and reasonable postage or shipping.

The exit, and how narrow it is

§ 59.1-608(C), in full:

“A restaurant or hotel is compliant with this section if, in every offer or advertisement for the purchase of a good or service that includes pricing information, such restaurant or hotel includes a clear and conspicuous disclosure of the percentage of any automatic and mandatory gratuities charged.”

Read that as written. It is a safe harbor, not an additional duty. A restaurant does not have to fold a 20% party gratuity into every displayed menu price the way subsection A would otherwise demand. It satisfies the statute by disclosing the percentage.

Not the dollar amount. Not an itemized list. The percentage, clearly and conspicuously, in every offer or advertisement that includes pricing information.

That trigger is the operative part. If a thing shows a price, it needs the disclosure. Printed menus, online menus, rate pages, and any online booking flow that displays prices are all squarely inside it.

Whether a negotiated banquet or catering contract counts is genuinely unsettled. A contract is not obviously “an offer or advertisement,” and there is no Attorney General guidance or reported case either way. A published banquet price sheet plainly is covered. If your event business depends on the answer, get advice rather than a magazine’s guess, including ours.

“Restaurant” and “hotel” both take their definitions from § 35.1-1, and the hotel definition is broad: “any place offering to the public for compensation transitory lodging or sleeping accommodations, overnight or otherwise,” including motels, travel lodges, tourist homes and hostels.

What it costs to get wrong

§ 59.1-610 makes any violation a prohibited practice under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act. That imports the whole VCPA machinery:

• A customer can sue. § 59.1-204 gives actual damages or $500, whichever is greater. For a willful violation, up to treble damages or $1,000, whichever is greater, plus attorney fees and costs.
• Public enforcement. § 59.1-206 lets the Attorney General, a Commonwealth’s attorney or a local attorney recover up to $2,500 per willful violation, plus investigative expenses up to $1,000 per violation and fees.

The practical trigger is in the willfulness rule: certified-mail notice followed by continuing the conduct is prima facie evidence of willfulness. In other words, the first letter is the expensive one to ignore.

The law was enacted as HB 2515 and SB 1212 in 2025, Chapters 685 and 686. It has not been amended since, including in 2026.

The federal rule, and the trap inside it

The FTC’s Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, 16 C.F.R. Part 464, has been in force since May 12, 2025. It requires the total price up front, with fees disclosed before a consumer is asked to pay.

It does not cover restaurants. Its scope is defined as live-event tickets and short-term lodging: hotels, motels, inns, short-term rentals, vacation rentals. Food service is not in it.

So the map is:

	Virginia § 59.1-608	FTC Part 464
Restaurants	Yes	No
Hotels and short-term lodging	Yes	Yes
Live-event ticketing	Yes	Yes

And here is the asymmetry worth knowing if you run rooms. § 59.1-608(H) deems a live-event ticket seller compliant with Virginia law if it complies with the federal rule. There is no equivalent subsection for lodging. A Virginia hotel following the FTC rule to the letter is not automatically deemed compliant with the state statute, though § 59.1-609(A)(iii) — advertising “in compliance with specific state or federal laws applicable to such supplier” — probably gets to the same place by a different route.

That is a drafting gap rather than a policy choice, and until someone closes it, a hotel should satisfy both texts rather than assume one covers the other. The federal rule does not preempt a stricter state rule; § 464.4(b) says so expressly.

The FTC is enforcing: it sued StubHub under Part 464 in April.

What to check this week

• Every place a price appears. Menu, website, third-party delivery listing, rate page, booking engine, printed rack card. The obligation attaches to the price display, not to the venue.
• State the percentage. “A 20% gratuity is added to parties of six or more” satisfies it. “A service charge may apply” does not.
• Distinguish gratuity from service charge in your own records, because they are different things for wage law even where they look the same to a customer. Since July 1 tips are inside the statutory definition of wages, and a knowing failure to pay them over carries treble damages.
• Answer the first letter. Whatever the merits, ignoring a certified notice is what converts a $500 problem into a willful one.