Restaurant reservation scalping is officially banned in New Jersey: ‘It’s just not the right way to do things’

Dominic Piperno can breathe a sigh of relief. Restaurant reservation scalping is now illegal in New Jersey.

Piperno, the chef-owner of Hearthside in Collingswood, learned from The Inquirer in March that people could purchase reservations for his restaurant on another guy’s website. He didn’t like it.

“We had no idea that was even happening, so it’s nice that it’s something we don’t worry about anymore,” the Cherry Hill native said Thursday after Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a bill banning the practice.

The new law, which prohibits third parties from listing, promoting, or selling reservations to restaurants without their permission, was passed unanimously by the New Jersey Assembly and Senate in March in hopes of nipping it in the bud before an anticipated World Cup tourism boom.

» READ MORE: From Collingswood to Atlantic City, restaurant owners want people to stop selling their reservations.

“I’m glad that the state’s looking out for us and doing the right thing, because it’s just not the right way to do things ... you’re selling somebody else’s product that’s not yours,” Piperno said.

Reservation scalping has garnered attention in various states as multiple platforms popped up with the practice. One case of particular panic arose after a restaurant reservation following the New Orleans Super Bowl sold online for $2,000 on Appointment Trader.

That’s the same website that was offering reservations to Hearthside for between $125-$225 for a Saturday in March. As of Thursday, the site still offered reservations at the Collingswood restaurant, allowing “bidders” to offer “concierges” between $143-$325 for a reservation this Saturday.

Jonas Frey, a Miami-based entrepreneur who founded Appointment Trader in 2021, said on Thursday that New Jersey is the seventh state he’s been banned from — along with the city of Philadelphia.

Frey said he will remove the New Jersey restaurant listings from his website, just as he’s done elsewhere. Otherwise, he risks penalties of up to $500 per day, per violation, under the new law.

“Unfortunately, we are very used to that by now,” he said Thursday.

Frey has defended his website as an example of embracing capitalism and said New Jersey had measly sales on the website compared to elsewhere. His business used to do well in New York, where the practice has also been banned.

“We have restaurants where we did substantially more revenue in one quarter in one restaurant than the entirety of time in the state of New Jersey,” Frey said in March after state lawmakers passed the legislation.

Sherrill said in a statement Thursday that the practice harms restaurants’ relationships with customers while driving up costs to dine out.

“New Jersey’s restaurants are vital to our local economies and community life, and we are committed to making sure both customers and business owners are treated fairly ... This bill strengthens transparency and supports the continued success of our restaurant industry,” she said.