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Restaurant businesses can expand and scale nicely if they get the concept right. Any entrepreneur who introduces something new or better to the market stands a good chance of winning and earning a significant share of the profits available.
At the same time, there are annoying compliance issues that many eateries face and do not always realise. Once you break the law, it can come back to bite you and cause a lot of trouble. What compliance issues might be a problem for your restaurant, and how can you deal with them?
Music Licencing
Most owners think it’s fine to use their personal Apple Music or Spotify playlist in their restaurant, but it’s not. Playing copyrighted music in a commercial space counts as a public performance and requires a public performance licence.
Licensing agencies like BMI and ASCAP often scout restaurants to see whether they’re licensed and what they’re playing. If you’re not licensed, you could be fined up to $30,000 per song, which is a lot of money for most restaurant entrepreneurs.
The best approach is to use commercial streaming services that already include licensing fees and the cost of the subscription. These don’t cost much and can provide the musical backdrop you want for your restaurant, whatever that happens to be.
Labour Law Posters
Posting labour law posters can feel like just another chore, but it’s a critical part of running a restaurant. Most restaurants need OSHA and minimum wage posters, and they need to be placed somewhere people can read them.
Laws change constantly, so posters also need to stay up to date. If your posters are outdated, you’ll need to update them to the current year (for example, 2026). Fines for outdated or missing posters can be more than $15,000 in some areas, which is a lot to pay for nothing.
Sign up for a poster subscription so you get all the posters you need to stay compliant delivered to your restaurant every year. Put them in conspicuous places where they can be seen, and avoid giving inspectors any reason to flag you.
Food Safety
You’ll also need to consider food safety at your business. Many restaurants run into trouble by failing to follow proper hygiene practices or by being unaware of their allergen responsibilities. The fix is simple: work with an online provider that offers affordable training and certification for your staff on a range of restaurant-related food safety issues.
For example, you can get training on safe waiting and hospitality. You can also better understand food hygiene ratings and put staff through different levels of food safety training based on their roles in your operation. Chefs require the most training because they are most involved in food preparation.
Grease Trap Documentation
Grease traps may be out of sight and out of mind, but that rule doesn’t apply here. Many cities now require regular grease trap pumping to prevent fatbergs from forming in sewers.
To stay compliant, you’ll need to keep a log of every cleaning and record where the grease waste goes. If you can’t produce a manifest showing when the last pump-out occurred, the city may fine you or shut off your water.
This just requires a bit of extra paperwork on your part. Keep a compliance binder where you store all maintenance receipts in one place. If an inspector shows up, you can show them where your grease trap documentation is so they can review it and sign you off.
ADA Website Accessibility
Compliance doesn’t stop at the front door of your restaurant anymore. Today, you also need to ensure your website is accessible under ADA requirements.
If you don’t have a website, you can skip this section. Under the rules, websites must be accessible to people with visual or hearing impairments, meeting WCAG 2.1 standards. If they are not, you could be open to a lawsuit. Serial litigants look for restaurant websites that do not work with screen readers and then launch five-figure lawsuits. This type of practice can be extremely profitable for the people who do it, so make sure your company’s website is following the law at all times.
To fix this, use accessibility widgets. They are easy to add to your website and ensure it follows ADA-compliant coding requirements. Disabled people can increase the text size on the screen or use software to read it aloud. Just make sure you add alt text to your images that accurately describes them, so people with disabilities know what the images show, especially if you have pictures of food on your website.
Chemical Safety and SDS Sheets
Your restaurant almost certainly deals with various chemicals some of which are unsafe. For example you might have sanitisers or industrial degreasers for your chip pan. Unfortunately the OSHA requires Safety Data Sheets and these need to be compatible for every chemical that you keep available for every chemical you keep on your site. Even if you decant chemicals into other containers like spray bottles you should still label these with the proper labeling.
Unfortunately if you don’t label your chemicals then the OSHA may decide that you deserve a fine. If you do these fines can be up to $13 000 or even more in some cases which is again a lot of money for you to be paying out for nothing.
The good news is that producing these SDS sheets is simple once you have the right type of printer. You’ll need a printer that’s able to print onto sticky back paper so that you can constantly update your labeling if it’s not provided to you by your suppliers. If it is provided to you by your suppliers then you don’t have to do as much work in-house.
Ultimately, if you run a restaurant, you need to be vigilant. Authorities and opportunists will look for weaknesses to exploit, so make sure that you are constantly on your guard and staying up to date with all of your compliance requirements.
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