Is "consumption seating" arranged by the merchant independently or does it set a minimum consumption in disguise?

At about 15:00 on October 31, 2026, a Starbucks store in Hedong District, Tianjin City was almost full. There were signs saying "Starbucks Business Space, Please Take Your Seats" at the corners of several empty tables outside the store. About 10 minutes after the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter sat down, a clerk asked softly: "Hello, would you like to order?"

This scene stems from the new regulations announced by Starbucks China on October 21: Starting from October 22, consumption seating will be implemented in stores across the country. At the same time, the "Third Space Initiative" was released, proposing three initiatives on the use of seats and public areas, conversation volume, and take-out food. Starbucks China said that its partners (store assistants) will follow the principles of friendly and friendly communication and give priority to help customers such as pregnant women and people with limited mobility.

After the new regulations were implemented, relevant discussions continued to heat up. Some consumers said, "Finally, no one is occupying seats during peak hours and making noise while holding coffee from other stores and playing games." Others think that such a rule is "less humane" and worry about being asked repeatedly whether to order after taking a seat. The core of the dispute is whether exchanging a cup of coffee for a seat is an independent arrangement by the operator, or is it a disguised setting of a minimum consumption? While "taking back chairs", how should merchants leave room for pregnant women, the elderly, and people taking a short break? A reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" conducted an interview on this.

Leave room for store execution

The reminders from the above stores are not urgent. The reporter did not place an order immediately after he sat down. About 10 minutes later, a clerk reminded him softly. Another 10 minutes after placing the order, another clerk asked again and checked the order number without interrupting. The two people outside the store did not order, and no one urged them for about 15 minutes.

The reporter then visited three Starbucks stores in Tianjin and Beijing. During this period, several consumers who had not ordered to sit were reminded, but no store clerk was seen urging parents pushing strollers, elderly people, or cleaners taking a short break. "Even if you only order one drink, you can still sit there for a long time." During the interview, a clerk said.

According to Starbucks China and store staff, pregnant women, people with limited mobility, delivery workers, passers-by taking shelter from the rain, security guards on duty, and other people who need temporary rest can enter the store without spending money, and free hot water will still be provided.

Similar practices have also appeared in other brand stores. According to public reports, at the end of October 2026, a "Consumption and Seat" sign was placed on the table of a Bawang Chaji store in Shandong. The staff of the store said that the store implements this rule, and the reminder is mainly for long-term seat occupancy and taking out takeaways. The implementation will be flexibly handled based on the on-site situation, and consumers who take a short break will not be persuaded to leave.

At the end of the same month, IKEA Shanghai Xuhui Mall responded that the restaurant has recently experienced non-dining behaviors such as long-term seat occupancy, making noise, and eating brought-in food, which has affected the normal dining of some customers to a certain extent. It has adopted "dining seating" guidance every Tuesday and Thursday. IKEA stated that this move was initiated by the mall, and other IKEA store restaurants have not yet implemented it simultaneously.

In July 2025, Peet’s Coffee placed “Instructions for Entering the Store” outside some stores in Hubei, Zhejiang and other places, clearly indicating that the seats in the store are limited and customers are required to sit down.

Rules are determined by law and are well-founded

"Consumption seating" has also caused controversy. According to media reports, on October 29, 2026, in a Starbucks store in Nanjing, Jiangsu, a man who had occupied a seat for many days without making any purchases was reminded by the clerk that "you need to make purchases here."

Why do merchants require consumption to be seated? Where is the boundary between this rule and the mandatory consumption and minimum consumption prohibited by law?

Zhou Qingjie, dean of Beijing Technology and Business University's New Business Economics Research Institute, told reporters that in offline catering operations, it is not uncommon for non-consumer personnel to occupy seats for a long time and bring their own food and drinks to occupy the operating space. This will divert service resources to a certain extent and affect the dining experience of consumers. Merchants introduce such rules to maintain a clean, quiet and orderly dining environment for customers visiting the store. This is a management behavior within the scope of business autonomy.

From the perspective of the business environment, Zhou Qingjie believes that the implementation of consumer seating in catering stores is an attempt by market entities to optimize business management, and is more suitable for regulation by market mechanisms. "The core competitiveness of the catering industry ultimately lies in the quality of dishes and reasonable pricing." He said that if merchants are too tough in execution and lack service warmth, consumers will "vote with their feet"; normal operating entities generally will not be forcibly evicted, and market choice itself can achieve self-correction.

Li Hongxuan, a member of the Lawyer Expert Database of "Rule of Law Daily" and a partner of Beijing Dacheng Law Firm, introduced that Article 16 of the "Measures for Promotion and Operation and Management of the Catering Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures") stipulates that "catering service operators are prohibited from setting minimum consumption." This article prohibits the consumption amount as a prerequisite for providing catering services, but does not prohibit operators from making arrangements for the use of their own business premises.

Li Hongxuan added that Paragraph 2 of Article 2 of the "Measures" defines catering service business activities as "business activities that provide consumers with food and consumption places and facilities through instant processing of finished or semi-finished products, commercial sales and service labor, etc." The provision of consumption places and facilities itself is an integral part of catering services. Article 11 of the "Regulations on Optimizing the Business Environment" stipulates that "market entities enjoy operational autonomy in accordance with the law. No unit or individual may intervene in various matters that should be independently decided by market entities in accordance with the law." Seat space is an operating resource formed by the operator's investment costs, and its use and allocation are matters of independent decision-making.

Li Hongxuan believes that "consumption seating" is conditioned on whether actual consumption occurs, not on the amount of consumption. You can get a seat by purchasing a cup of the lowest-priced product, and the payment obligation corresponds to the actual consideration. It does not fall within the circumstances prohibited by Article 11 of the Implementing Regulations of the Consumer Rights Protection Law of "using violence, coercion, restriction of personal freedom, or using technical means to force or disguise consumers to purchase goods or receive services." It is legal in principle.

He also reminded that legitimacy also depends on the way of expression and actual effect. If the rules are stated as "minimum consumption of ×× yuan per person" and "single consumption must be no less than ×× yuan to seat", or are called "consumption for seating" and the amount is used as the threshold in execution, then the minimum consumption is still set. According to the Consumer Rights Protection Law, such content is unfair, unreasonable and invalid to consumers; it is also prohibited by Article 16 of the Measures.

Ji Yunda, a senior partner at Beijing Yinghe Law Firm who serves as a perennial legal adviser to more than a dozen large shopping malls and chain restaurants, analyzed that the length of time one can "sit" after consumption should not be uniformly stipulated by laws and regulations. Merchants can make adjustments based on business formats, passenger flow, and peak and valley periods, but they should announce or inform in advance.

Ji Yunda also suggested that consumers should consider the elderly, pregnant women, infants and their caregivers, people with disabilities, those who are suddenly feeling unwell, those who take a short break, and those who are avoiding risks. This is not only an act advocated by law and ethics, but also the due meaning of corporate social responsibility.

Spatial governance needs to be refined

According to public reports, following Starbucks, brands such as IKEA, Bawang Tea Ji, and Piye Coffee have clarified seat usage rules in some stores. From the perspective of building a legalized business environment, is it necessary to issue more detailed industry guidelines or unified referee standards?

Li Hongxuan believes that the current laws and regulations are based on the Consumer Rights Protection Law and its implementation regulations as the basic framework, and specific space management rules such as "consumer seating", "limited time table turning", "outside food management" and "reasonable limits for persuading people to leave" have not yet been refined and unified. This may lead to merchants’ exploration wandering in the ambiguous zone between “legal autonomy” and “disguised restrictions.” Compliance costs are high, expectations are unstable, and standards may vary between different regions and different referees.

"Businesses need clearer compliance expectations." Li Hongxuan suggested that improvement from the institutional level can be promoted collaboratively through "industry self-discipline, administrative regulations, and judicial benchmarking": industry associations have issued self-discipline guidelines to provide compliance templates and public examples for "consumption seating, limited-time table changes, outside food management, and private room billing"; the city Market supervision, commerce and other departments have issued normative guidelines to clarify legal boundaries, especially the identification of disguised minimum consumption, and clarify the publicity method and implementation standards; judicial authorities have used typical cases and judicial interpretations to establish unified adjudication standards on "consumption seating", "reasonable limits for persuading people to leave", "effectiveness of standard clauses", etc.

Ji Yunda suggested that relevant rules should be guided through flexible measures such as industry initiatives and guidance. Commercial space has certain quasi-public attributes, but the cost is borne by merchants and is not obligated to be open to the public for free. Increasing the supply of public space in urban planning can help avoid long-term transfer of public stay needs to commercial entities. For businesses that assume more public responsibilities, local governments may consider supporting them.

"Consumer seating and other rules are endogenous business management methods in the market, and their scale adjustment and optimization can be completed independently through market mechanisms." Zhou Qingjie concluded that respecting market laws and being prudent and inclusive in supervision are more conducive to the healthy development of the catering industry and the optimization of the consumer and business environment.