The Overview
Starting Jan. 1, scalpers who snap up tables at California’s hottest restaurants and resell them online for hundreds of dollars will be breaking state law. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed Assembly Bill 1640 on Sunday, Sept. 27.
Resale sites let buyers pay for confirmed bookings or post bids for someone, often a bot, to land one. One listing showed a $711 bid for a Saturday table for two at a Sacramento Japanese restaurant, before any food or tip, according to an Assembly analysis. Nearly 15% of diners who recently ate at a full-service restaurant said they had been charged for a reservation, a 2025 National Restaurant Association survey found.
What the Law Does
The law bars anyone from selling or transferring a restaurant reservation, or helping someone else do it, for more than they paid to get it. The ban doesn’t apply when a restaurant signs a written agreement allowing the higher price, and it covers only restaurants in California.
The state attorney general and county and city attorneys can sue violators for up to $1,000 per violation, and restaurants or others harmed by a resale can sue for damages. Penalties the attorney general collects go into an existing fund that pays for the office’s enforcement work.
Legislative Status
Assemblymember Catherine Stefani (D-San Francisco) and Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) wrote the bill with three Democratic coauthors. It passed without a single no vote: 78-0 in the Assembly on May 26, 40-0 in the Senate on Aug. 27, and 78-0 when the Assembly agreed to the Senate’s changes the next day, according to the FastDemocracy vote record.
“No one should have to pay a scalper for a dinner reservation that was meant to be free,” Stefani said after the Assembly vote, CBS San Francisco reported. The California Restaurant Association sponsored the bill, reservation platforms OpenTable and Resy supported it, and no opposition was on file.
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