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An Italian restaurant adds a cover charge and nobody blinks. Do the same in Spain and you have broken the law since 2026. Do it in France and the question does not even arise — the separate line on the bill stopped existing there in 1987.
Coperto in Italy, couvert in Portugal and France, cubierto in Spain, kouver in Greece: it is the same idea everywhere — a flat per-guest charge, on top of whatever is ordered, covering bread, water and the laid table linen. What is not the same everywhere is the law. There is no European rule that says whether it is allowed; every country — sometimes every region — has decided this for itself, and the six answers sit worlds apart.
That is not a detail that only matters to owners working in one country. Hospitality people look across the border for pricing ideas, groups open in several countries at once, and copying a concept from a restaurant in Rome or Lisbon quietly copies their local law too — or does not, depending on where you actually are.
This guide walks the six countries through seven numbers: one per country, plus one European rule that sits above all of them. Further down you can work out what a cover charge would actually earn you, how much it weighs on a guest's bill, and whether it is even allowed where you are.
This is not legal advice — it is a map of what each country's law says today. Rules change, as Spain proved again in 2026; when in doubt, check your own national regulator or ask your accountant. The calculator runs entirely in your own browser: nothing is sent anywhere and nothing is stored.
Why 'the place down the street does it' does not work here
A cover charge is appealing because it is one flat, predictable line on top of the menu — no price rise on every dish, just one amount per guest. But precisely because it is not part of the menu price, it falls under a completely different law than what you charge for food and drink: not VAT law, but national — sometimes regional — rules on price display and unfair commercial practices.
Even inside one country that is not always uniform. Italy allows the coperto everywhere except in the Lazio region — where Rome sits — which banned charging it separately in 2006. A Roman restaurant charges the exact same cost; the line on the menu is simply called 'pane' or 'servizio' instead of 'coperto'.
And whatever a country decides about the charge itself, one European rule sits on top and applies everywhere: the total price — every mandatory cost included — has to be visible before the guest orders. Those two layers together decide whether a cover charge is allowed at all, and how you have to show it if it is.
The ultimate guide Menu Engineering & Drinks: 6 Steps to More Margin From menu design to pour cost: everything your menu can earn for you, in one guide. Open the guideThe 7 numbers, country by country
Six countries, one figure each that sums up the law there, and one European number that sits above every one of them.
1. 0 — no EU law says yes or no
That is the first and most important number: there is no European directive that specifically permits or bans a cover charge. The EU regulates VAT rates, consumer protection and price display in general terms, but the question "may a restaurant charge a flat per-guest surcharge on top of the menu" is left entirely to member states — and, as in Italy, sometimes to a single region within one.
That is exactly why the six stories below sit so far apart. There is no shared baseline to start from: every country arrived at its own answer, on its own timeline, through its own law.
Keep this number in mind as a warning above all: everything below about Italy, Portugal, Spain, Germany, France and Greece is national — or regional — law, never an EU standard you can simply carry over to a seventh country.
2. 1987 — France closes the question for good
In France the question does not even arise any more. The 'arrêté du 27 mars 1987' requires restaurants to display their prices as 'service compris': staff service is already folded into every price on the menu. A French bill therefore has no separate cover-charge line, no service line, nothing — what you see on the menu is what you pay.
It is the oldest and most radical of the six solutions: instead of permitting or banning a cover charge, France simply defined the problem out of existence. There is no separate cost to argue about, so no law is needed to say how much it may be.
For a French restaurant this mostly means: fold every fixed cost — bread, water, service — straight into your menu prices. That is not just the safest route; it has been the only one the law allows for almost forty years.
3. €1–5 (up to €25) — Italy's coperto, legal everywhere but one region
Italy sits at the other end: the coperto is fully legal nationwide, with no statutory cap. Restaurants typically charge between €1 and €5 per guest, though in some tourist-heavy spots — a view of the Colosseum or a table on Piazza San Marco — it can run as high as €25. One condition applies everywhere: the amount has to be on the menu before the guest orders, so nobody discovers it for the first time on the bill.
Then there is the exception: the Lazio region, where Rome sits, banned charging the coperto separately in 2006. Restaurants in Rome charge exactly the same amount — it is simply listed under a different name on the menu, usually 'pane' (bread) or 'servizio' (service). The cost is identical; only the label changes, which shows just how literally these laws are sometimes read.
For an Italian restaurant outside Lazio this is the most relaxed story of the six: legal, uncapped, and bound only by the requirement that it is clearly disclosed. Inside Lazio, in practice, nothing about the amount changes — only the word printed above it.
The same idea — a flat per-guest charge for bread, water and the laid table — with a completely different legal outcome in each country.
Fully legal nationwide — must be listed on the menu before the guest orders. Exception: the Lazio region (Rome) banned charging it separately in 2006, so the same line there is called "pane" or "servizio".
Survives as the kouver, but only fully folded into the VAT-inclusive, mandatorily-receipted total — never as a loose surprise at the end of the meal.
Allowed only if the waiter states the price first and the guest explicitly agrees — never for anything not ordered or consumed. Fines for breaching this run from €300 to €180,000.
Confirmed illegal nationwide as of August 2026: a separately billed cubierto or table-service charge is not allowed. It must already be inside the menu price.
A separately listed "Gedeckpreis" is banned under the Preisangabenverordnung, Germany's price-indication ordinance — the menu price has to cover everything.
Since the 1987 arrêté, prices must be displayed "service compris": staff service is already folded into every menu price, so there is no separate line at all.
Amounts are typical figures in euro, not statutory caps unless stated. Laws change — always check your own country's current rules before introducing a charge.
4. 2026 — Spain confirms: illegal
Spain closed the door for good in August 2026: a separately billed cubierto or table-service charge is not allowed anywhere in the country. The reasoning matches France, only stated more bluntly — whatever a restaurant wants to charge for table service has to already be inside the menu price, never a separate line on the bill.
Germany arrives at the same answer by a different, older route: under the Preisangabenverordnung — Germany's price-indication ordinance — a separately listed 'Gedeckpreis' is banned. The logic mirrors Spain's exactly: the menu price has to cover everything a guest is required to pay, so an extra line on top contradicts what the menu already promised.
That two countries — one just now, one for longer — land on precisely the same conclusion says something about where European consumer protection is heading: away from separate surcharges, toward one price that already includes everything. A restaurant still running a separate cover-charge line in Spain or Germany today is running into national law.
5. €180,000 — Portugal's fine for a cover charge nobody agreed to
Portugal takes a middle path: the couvert is allowed, but only if the guest explicitly agrees to it. Article 135 of Portugal's commerce and services framework bans charging for anything not ordered or consumed, and the waiter has to state the price before the guest accepts it — bread and olives that simply appear on the table and later show up on the bill are not allowed.
What makes Portugal unique is how hard the law leans on enforcement: violators face fines from €300 up to €180,000. That is not a symbolic figure — it is a fine that can put a small independent restaurant in real trouble, over something as simple as serving bread without first asking whether the guest wants it.
For a Portuguese restaurant this comes down to one habit: have the waiter always announce the couvert out loud — "would you like bread and olives, the couvert is € X" — and never serve it unasked. Once that has happened and the guest says yes, the rest is just a normal line on the bill.
6. €1 — Greece's kouver, never a surprise
In Greece the kouver survives, usually around €1 per guest, and covers the same things as everywhere else: bread, water, the table linen. The difference with Italy is not the amount but how it has to be shown — the kouver has to be fully folded into the total, VAT-inclusive bill the guest is legally handed as a printed receipt.
That is a subtle but important difference from a country like Italy, where the coperto can sit as its own separate line on the menu. In Greece the whole point is that the guest never meets it as a loose surprise: it is already inside the total figure before the bill even appears, sitting quietly on the mandatory receipt.
The result is a cover charge that stays lawful everywhere as long as it never turns up as a sudden extra at the end of the meal. A guest reading their receipt sees one total amount — never a separate line they were not expecting.
7. 4% — the European floor under all six stories
Underneath all six national stories above sits one European rule no country can ignore: the Omnibus directive (EU 2019/2161), in force since 28 May 2022. Article 6a requires that the TOTAL price — every mandatory cost included, a lawful cover charge among them — be visible before the guest orders. Failing to disclose what the bill will actually cost is a breach in itself.
The fine attached to it is substantial: up to 4% of the restaurant's annual turnover. That is not a fixed figure like Portugal's €180,000 ceiling, but a percentage — which means the penalty scales with the size of the business that gets it wrong.
This fourth number is the one to remember if the rest of this article gets overwhelming: whatever your country decides about the cover charge itself, the European requirement never changes — show the total price, always, before the order is placed. That applies even in countries that are not among the six above.
An illustrative breakdown of a €2.10 cover charge — not a legal figure, but a reasonable cost allocation for an average restaurant.
This is one restaurant's own reasonable cost allocation, not an official or legal figure — use it as a way to justify your own amount, not as evidence.
Work out whether a cover charge is worth it for your restaurant
Fill in how many guests you serve per sitting, how many sittings a week, the amount you are considering and what an average bill costs at your place. You get the extra annual revenue, how much the amount weighs on a guest's bill, and whether it is even allowed where you are.
The four fields open with plausible figures for a mid-sized restaurant, so you can see how it reads before you overwrite them with your own. The country only decides the legal answer below — the money itself is worked out in your own currency.
Cover-charge check
What a cover charge earns you per year, how much it weighs on the bill, and whether it is even allowed where you are.
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Whatever your country decides about the charge itself: the EU Omnibus directive still requires the total price — every mandatory charge included — to be visible before the order, backed by fines of up to 4% of annual turnover.
Everything runs in your own browser: nothing is sent anywhere or stored. This is not legal advice — always check your own country's current rules.
Two figures worth reading together. The extra revenue is pure arithmetic — a small amount, times many guests, times many sittings, adds up to a surprising annual total fast. The share of the bill is not a legal test, just a rule of thumb: the larger that percentage, the more likely a guest notices it and says something.
The legality banner above IS based on what the law says today in the country you pick, but it stays a summary, not legal advice. And remember the fixed rule underneath it: whichever country you choose, the European requirement to show the total price up front never changes.
What if your restaurant is outside these six countries?
This guide covers six countries because those are the ones where the law today is explicit and well documented. If yours falls outside them, that does not mean there are no rules — it means you have to look them up yourself, with your national consumer-protection regulator or your accountant, because every EU country handles price display and mandatory surcharges its own way.
When in doubt, there is a safe default: fold a fixed cost such as bread, water or table linen into your menu prices instead of billing it separately. That is exactly what France and now Spain have made a legal requirement, and it is never banned to do it voluntarily in a country where a separate line is still allowed.
One thing never changes, wherever your restaurant sits inside the EU: the Omnibus directive (number four above) requires the same visibility of the total price before the order, everywhere. That is the one rule you never have to look up per country — it already applies.
One European question, six national answers — and one rule that applies everywhere
Treating "can I charge a cover fee?" as one question with one answer is how owners get this wrong. It is six questions with six answers, and even inside one country — look at Lazio — the answer can differ by region. The only reliable way to know is to look up your own country, not the restaurant down the street or the one you saw on holiday.
What is the same everywhere is the European requirement to show the total price up front. A lawful cover charge that is not clearly listed on the menu is just as much a problem as an unlawful one that is clearly listed — the two layers of law work independently of each other.
Still unsure after this article? The safest route is the one France and now Spain have made mandatory: fold your fixed costs straight into your menu prices. From there, read on about corkage fees — the other per-guest charge your restaurant might already levy — how VAT works on your total bill, or how menu engineering can help you fold those costs into your prices in the first place.