is increasingly common with online restaurant bookings when no-show fees are prepaid by charging them to credit-card accounts. The application of the no-show rule implies a whole series of legal issues. Among the most important ones is the question of the legal nature of the obligation of paying a no-show fee and the legal basis for its implementation. The answer to this question depends on the rules governing legal relations between the providers of restaurant services and their customers in the cases where the customers fail to act in accordance with the reservation. Another important question in the context of the reservation cancelation policies, and the payment of no-show fees, is how the protection of customers as consumers is ensured, particularly in regard to the EU law on consumer protection against unfair contract terms in consumer contracts, as well as in online distance contracts involving reservations. Last but not least, it is important to establish which body of law is applicable to the obligation of paying a no-show-fee when cross-border restaurant services are supplied to foreigners. In the text, the author analyses the functions and characteristics of the payment of no-show fees and its legal basis and interpretation in the context of the EU rules on the protection of consumers in consumer contracts. The aim is to determine the main characteristics of this obligation and the optimal method of its regulation. II. LEGAL NATURE OF NO-SHOW FEE A no-show fee is the amount any customer is obliged to pay to the restaurant if he or she does not honour the reservation by not arriving at the restaurant in due time, or if the number of persons does not correspond to the one specified in the reservation. Such customer’s behaviour results in his or her not having used the booked restaurant service. The no-show fee is a pre-determined charge, i.e. a flat rate or an amount paid per person for the number of persons specified in the reservation. The existence of the obligation to pay a no-show fee serves several purposes. It is some kind of the pressure on the customer to honour the reservation and to arrive at the restaurant in due time. In that sense, no-show fee has a preventive function because it prompts the customer to act in accordance with the voluntarily booked reservation and to honour the reservation cancellation policy in order to avoid the payment of a no-show fee. When it comes to the providers of restaurant services, the payment of no-show fee diminishes the 117 NO-SHOW CLAUSE IN RESTAURANT SERVICE CONTRACTS
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