Kawakami v. Kahala Hotel Investors, LLC.

Opinion of the Court by

WILSON, J.

I. Introduction

In this ease, we are once again confronted with alleged violations of Hawaii’s hotel or restaurant service charge law, Hawaii Re vised Statutes (“HRS”) § 481B-14 (2008). 1 Specifically, we consider the following issue: Under HRS § 481B-14, does a hotel or restaurant’s use of service charges to pay its employees’ “wages” without disclosing such practice to its customers constitute an unfair or deceptive act or practice in the conduct of trade or commerce (“UDAP”) and/or an unfair method of competition (“UMOC”) pursuant to HRS § 480-2 (2008). As…