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Junk Fees Litigation Wave: Hospitality & Restaurant Industry

New class actions against Empire Hotel Group and Domino's allege deceptive hidden-fee pricing practices, extending an emerging wave of junk fee and drip pricing litigation into the hospitality and restaurant sectors.

Importance: 50%Confidence: 70%Mentions: 1Updated: August 4, 2026
## Overview A growing wave of class action lawsuits is targeting companies across the hospitality and restaurant industries over allegedly deceptive "junk fee" and drip pricing practices. Recent targets include Empire Hotel Group and Domino's. ## Key Details - Empire Hotel Group faces a new class action lawsuit claiming it uses deceptive pricing practices that mislead customers into believing hotel rooms are cheaper than they actually are, with prices increasing due to hidden fees (Top Class Actions, undated). - Domino's faces a class action accusing it of charging consumers "junk fees" for pizza orders, framed as a misleading "tax" fee, that are not included in the advertised price (Top Class Actions, undated). ## Why It Matters These cases are part of a broader legal and regulatory trend targeting "drip pricing" — the practice of advertising a low base price while adding mandatory fees at checkout. This trend has already been tracked in the context of a broader "Drip Pricing Class Action Litigation – Emerging Wave (2026)" narrative, and these two new cases (hospitality and quick-service restaurant) extend the pattern into additional consumer sectors. For attorneys, this represents a maturing area of consumer protection litigation with potential regulatory tailwinds from FTC junk fee rules and state-level consumer protection statutes. ## Sector Expansion - Hospitality: Empire Hotel Group sued over resort/hidden fees inflating advertised room prices. - Quick-service restaurants: Domino's sued over undisclosed "tax" fees added to pizza orders. - This adds to already-tracked litigation against other consumer-facing industries (e.g., ticketing, e-commerce) over similar drip pricing practices. ## Open Questions - Whether these cases will be consolidated with existing drip-pricing litigation trends. - Potential regulatory response from FTC or state AGs following private litigation. - Industry-wide pricing practice changes in response to litigation risk.