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HOTREC ‘MEAL-SHARING’ PLATFORM POLICY PAPER – MAY 2018
Clarification of differences between commercial and home restaurant activity for the purposes of ensuring correct
use of residential space and ensuring community cohesion
Establishment of mechanisms to monitor and control use of residential property as home restaurants
AREA REQUIRING ATTENTION:
ENFORCEMENT
OTHER ASPECTS
Where compliance inspections are mandated by law for home restaurants, mechanisms should be established by
destination authorities to carry out these inspections in a timely and efficient manner
Ensure tax breaks and government sponsored services vouchers cannot be used in home restaurants activities
Clarification of the employment status of hosts (i.e. all individuals working within a home restaurant in this activity)
as self-employed or otherwise. Requirement for them to meet the legal obligations associated with their actual
employment status
Applicable local smoking bans in public places and places where food is served the public should be enforced in
home restaurants as in the regulated sector.
Copyright law should be enforced: home restaurants should ask a license to relevant collective management of
copyright organisations before making listen any music to paying guests.
If regulations on home restaurants are to be effective, they must be enforced. Experience to date indicates that
there is a limited understanding among destination authorities regarding the extent to which home restaurants
exist within their jurisdiction. This suggests that they are unlikely to be currently dedicating the necessary financial
and human resources to enforce the implementation of regulations on critical areas such as food safety to home
restaurant operators
Tax breaks and government sponsored vouchers for home services are normally restricted for personal use
only (e.g. voucher for home employee cooking for the family). However, rules can be easily by-passed to recruit
an employee to perform home restaurant activities (i.e. as a cook), therefore gaining undue/illegal competitive
advantage at the tax payers’ expenses.
People working in the home restaurant sector are not covered by the same employee rights and benefits as
those in the regulated sector. They can be assumed to be operating in the informal sector, unless they self-
declare and register as self-employed (itself dependent on clarifying the nature of their business – see legislative
instruments above)
To preserver public health and prevent the public from exposure to tobacco smoke, public authorities have in
many European countries implemented smoking bans in places open to the public. Home restaurants, as they
are welcoming paying guests, are to be considered as places open to the public where such smoking bans apply.
The communication to the public of works protected by copyright requires the granting of an authorization from a
collective management organisation representing the holder of the rights. As home restaurants welcome external
paying guests, any music protected by copyright played in the premises in the presence of paying guests’ requires
such prior-authorisation and license.
KEY POLICY CONSIDERATIONS:
KEY POLICY CONSIDERATIONS:
AREA REQUIRING ATTENTION:
AREA REQUIRING ATTENTION: