The government's position hasn't changed much. They believe there is no reason for customers to pay a service charge unless they explicitly consented to pay this sum. But they can't punish restaurants for mandating a service charge either, because they aren't entirely sure if they e the legal authority to do so. This is also a throwback to 20 17, when the same debate took stage. D o c a actually published guide lines explicitly stating that the service charge was a warrantary matter and restaurants couldn't force it upon diners. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and hoped that things would change for the better but it didn't.