Regardless of the belief about tips, no one has the right to kidnap another over money. If someone owes someone money you are claiming they have the right to take them hostage. Don’t think so.
If anyone is stealing money it is the restaurant. They claim they have the right to a tip regardless of the service performed, service which usually sucks in larger groups. I NEVER attend a restaurant that demands a tip on larger groups when I am in a group. We’ll simply go to individual tables or get separate checks.
And restaurants wonder why their patronage is dropping.
People are not kidnapped if they:
enter an establishment of their own free will.
observe a written policy that parties over a certain size have a mandatory gratuity.
order from the menu
eat a meal
refuse (initially) to pay the gratuity.
None of the above constitutes any definition of “kidnapped”, legal or otherwise.
You’ve completely failed to make your case for kidnapping. Simply repeating the word in every post doesn’t make it so.
You are not addressing the facts of the story in any way, shape, or form.
What restaurants you patronize is absolutely your business, and if auto gratuties are a showstopper for you, all the more power to you. Don’t go.