ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 5735

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  DECEMBER 18, 2025

      The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 5735 (1R).

      As 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.).

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) finds that the Judiciary will incur an indeterminate increase in annual operating expenditures, as additional resources will likely have to be allocated to any increase in civil caseload from the provisions of this bill.  The OLS also anticipates collections from court filing fees to grow in tandem with the caseload.

      The Department of Law and Public Safety may incur additional workload from the enforcement of civil penalties established by this bill.