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It's called a Bait and Switch and is a form of Fraud.

It's just that in the US, the grey area between Fraud and "Sharp business practice" is legally way broader than the rest of the Developed World.

Kudos to California to have forces some clarification on at least this one form of misrepresentation/false-advertising/fraud.

I agree that these fees are bad and I hate them, but couldn't you make the opposite argument that they serve as a (money) tax on the rich? Poor people will take the time to shop around for the best deal, whereas rich people will simply pay whatever for the product they want. Therefore hidden fees disproportionately are paid by the rich.

At that point just increase the price of menu items and pay people what their worth instead of lying about the final bill

I think clear signage and message on the bill indicating "tipping is optional, service charges is included in the menu price" should suffice.

Making tipping illegal goes too far, but I am okay with implementing it for couple decades, in order to correct a bad habit.

Agreed. I hate tipping. Some tippers will hate for tipping to go away because they can use their charisma to make a lot of money. More power to them but tipping is just a way for these businesses to keep their labor low. Many other countries don't have tipping and can still have restaurants. For some reason the US needs tipping to be able to have restaurants.

A restaurant in my area recently put up signs saying they pay their staff a living wage, raised prices, and forbaid tips. More like this, please.

I'm not a California resident but once on a visit I ate at a place. Paid the bill. No tip. Left. The shopkeeper chased me on the street to catch up and ask why I didn't tip, and wasn't the food good, etc. Embarrassed, I was with a friend who is a resident.. I told her yes it was fine. "Then why no tip?!" Internally: Because it's a tip? I didnt get some kind of exceptional service there. If anything they left us alone really. So what was I tipping for exactly? why not just charge a different price, etc. Externally: "Oh I'm sorry. I didn't know"

Agreed, but let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good here.

Agreed, but overall a good move to address separate and much simpler issue of predatory pricing (for the customer)

Heading to mother's day lunch right now, set menu for $89 per person. Except it's a 10% surcharge on Sundays, the only day that mother's day is, so that price isnt really true at all.

This in Aus which I'd normally argue has better common-sense policies such as requiring sales tax in the menu price

Same in colombia. The price advertised is the price you pay. No need to calculate the tax in your head in the grocery store, just add everything and you’re golden.

It really depends on the country. France and Belgium, as you wrote. Germany, they expect a tip and look at you angry if you don't. Italy, they add a service charge at the end that is nowhete advertised. Turkey, they invent a random price at the end, complaints only taken if you're local. (I'm slightly exaggerating)

That's what pisses me off, if the consumer knows what they'll actually have to pay they won't buy.

They are arguing that they should be able to lie to the consumer and trick them. They think the consumer shouldn't be informed to make a decision on what is right for them. And once again, they are putting the business before the customer.

There are a lot of things I wished they did similar to other countries such as VAT. Hiding all these fees seems deceptive from both the business and the govt sneaking in their taxes.

Article is about California, where tipped employees must be paid minimum wage same as everyone else