The Cheesecake Factory is accused of tricking customers into overpaying for their meals
The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Marcel Goldman, claims the restaurant chain is recommending exorbitantly high tips on bills split between several parties, BuzzFeed News reports.
The Cheesecake Factory calculates a range of suggested gratuity on its receipts that is between 15% and 22% of a bill's total. When those bills are split between multiple parties, the suggested gratuity remains the same - even though each customers' portion of the bill is smaller.
Under this system, Gordman says he was tricked into paying a 40% tip on his portion of a bill during a visit to the restaurant chain. He owed $38.50 for his portion of the bill, and he chose to give a 20% tip - which the receipt told him was $15.40.
But that calculation was based on the bill's total cost, so he ended up unknowingly paying a 40% tip for his meal.
The lawsuit claims this is standard practice at more than 200 Cheesecake Factory restaurants.
In a statement on the lawsuit, a Cheesecake Factory representative told BuzzFeed News that its gratuity recommendations are "suggestions only" and "guests are free to tip as they please."