Customers have the right not to passively accept the restaurant’s unreasonable requirements including “minimum spending”,“corkage”, and “non-allowance for bringing one’s own drinks”

Some restaurants take advantage of their dominant position in consumer activities, set up limitations for dining customers with “minimum spending”; or constrain customers to drink wines offered by the restaurant which cost more than the market price, and forbid customers to bring their own drinks; if customers do bring their own drinks, they charge them with “corkage”. These practices are not legitimate.

According to relevant provisions of China's Consumer Protection Law, consumers have the right to choose and the right to fair trade consumption. That is, consumers have the right to choose operators who provide goods or services, to choose the types of products or services and to decide whether to buy or not; consumers have the right to conduct comparison, identification and selection when they choose types of commodities or services freely. When consumers buy goods or receive services, they are entitled to such fair trade conditions as quality assurance, reasonable price, accurate measures, and they have the right to refuse compulsory transaction of business operators.

Such behaviors as “minimum spending”, “corkage”, and “non-allowance for bringing one’s own drinks” have infringed on the consumers’ right to autonomic choice and the right to fair deal, thus consumers have the right to refuse such behaviors of merchants.