I am missing your point here. If I want to get together with my fellow competition and form a restaurant association where recommendations on costs, charges, etc are made, but am free to adopt those recommendations or not, is that a crime as well?

If I see an owner of another store in my restaurant and he says “what is this surcharge thing?” and I explain it to him and he adopts it, are we guilty then as well?

Sorry, but this is a case where the government should butt the heck out. This is not price fixing where prices for items are established across the board. As the surcharge is based on a percentage, 3% on a Big Mac is going to be different than 3% on filet minion and a baked potato.

If people band together (that ol’ pesky Constitution thing) and decide to voluntarily add a surcharge, that is none of the government’s business. Not here,. Not in this case.

If the government wants to run businesses, let them demonstrate how well they can do it because from where I sit, they cannot run or control any market worth crap.