According to the Czech Trade Inspection (CTI) discriminatory conduct was committed by Clock Cafè (inside the Illusionist Art Museum) in Old Town Square and at Café Restaurant on Střelecký Island.
In the Clock Cafè, the inspectors made two orders as guests. “For an order made in English, the waiter charged a so-called extra service of CZK 50 to the total amount of CZK 460, even though consumers were not familiar with this service in advance.
In the case of an order made in the Czech language, no “service” was charged to consumers”, said the Inspector’s spokesman Jiří Fröhlich. “We are very sorry about this situation, as our company does not identify with such practices”, said Clock Cafè manager Radek Sláma. “We have set up control mechanisms to prevent a similar event from happening again”, he added.
The situation practically repeated during the inspection at the Café Restaurant. An English-speaking guest was charged CZK 75 for a “recommended tip”. The Czech-speaking customer had no tips on the receipt.
The manager of Café Restaurant refused to comment.
IAMPrague (Clock café) and Trophono (Café Restaurant) have to pay CZK 60,000 each for violating the Consumer Protection Act. Inspectors carried out inspections at the beginning of this year.
However, since the offenses were dealt with in administrative proceedings, it was necessary to wait for the final decisions to be published. Similar controls took place again on 20 September. In these cases, inspectors found three violations of the law.
