ASSEMBLY CONSUMER AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 5735

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  DECEMBER 11, 2025

      The Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 5735.

      As amended and reported, this bill requires a restaurant to disclose a mandatory gratuity charge to a patron on the menu, at the entrance of the restaurant, on the patron’s bill, and if the restaurant operates a website, on the restaurant’s website.  Each point of disclosure is required to be in a prominent manner. 

      The bill supplements the consumer fraud act, P.L.1960, c.39, but does not apply the act’s penalties.  Violators of the bill’s provisions are subject to a civil penalty of $1,000 for first offense, $2,500 for a second offense, and $5,000 for a third or subsequent offense.   For violations of a continuing nature, each day during which it continues constitutes an additional, separate, and distinct offense.  However, the bill provides that a person will not be charged with more than one violation per day.   A penalty imposed pursuant to the bill’s provisions is to be collected in a civil action under the “Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999,” P.L.1999, c.274 (C.2A:58-10 et seq.).

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amended the bill to provide that a person in violation of the bill’s provisions will be subject to certain civil penalties, replacing the penalties that may be have been imposed under the consumer fraud act.