I greeted some Chinese friends who just arrived at an airport. They were hungry after a long flight so we ate lunch inside the airport. We sat down and opened the menu in Chinese. We ordered some food and talked about our lives. While one was patting another on the back, he accidentally touched the display and changed the language of the menu to French. I noticed something strange. I felt some of the prices changing.
To confirm my sense I went through all the languages available. They were English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, Dutch, Chinese(Traditional), Chinese(Simplified) and Japanese. Only the two Chinese languages served different prices from the others. In the Chinese menu water was $1.50 while it was free in other menus. Other drinks were also a dollar more expensive on average. The dishes were priced the same.
I immediately stood up and protested. Eventually a manager came out and apologized for the price discrepancy, claiming it was "a technical issue". They did give us a refund for the extra costs incurred but we were pissed and decided never to go there again.
Can restaurants get away with this kind of discriminatory behavior by deliberately overcharging people who speak a minority language and explain that there was "a technical issue" every time this is brought up? Is there any legislation/provision/etc. that prevents such malicious action?
