Good, fuck scalpers. This is no different from people buying up 15 PS5s and then selling them on eBay for triple the cost. They are adding nothing of value to the world, only helping rich people be lazy.
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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The people that can afford these places deserve to lose money to arbitrage anyway, it's not a priority for any legitimate government.
The problem is that this is screwing the restaurants too, either through reputation damage or through empty tables if the scalpers don't manage to sell the reservation on time.
I wonder what the third-party app site's policy is if the restaurant cancels the reservation. Does the "bidder" get their money back? If so, the restaurants themselves should buy up all the reservations on the third party site, then cancel them, then demand their money back (or do a chargeback through their credit card). Make their own restaurant toxic to the third party sites.
the restaurant should get a huge cut of that
No. Why do you think it shouldn't be allowed? If it starts hurting the restaurant, they'll change their policies.
The problem, as pointed out in the first paragraph, is that these are third party apps operating without the restaurant's knowledge or consent. The proposed law would outlaw what these apps are doing if they do not have a contract with the restaurant. I'm all for it.
But then how is it not fraud and already illegal?
It's not illegal to book a reservation and then turn around and give that reservation to someone else (scheduling conflicts, medical emergencies, etc) with the other person paying you for it. To me it's a perfectly valid thing to do. The problem is that it's being commercialized and creating confusion for both customers and restaurants who no longer know who's booking their tables.
You specifically mentioned the case of the app not having the consent of the restaurant.
How is it not fraud if I sell you a reservation when I'm not in contract with the restaurant owner and simply sell: nothing.
Because then I have a bridge to sell ;)