Springfield, IL (WAND) – A new Illinois law could help address reservation fraud for restaurants.

The bipartisan plan will ban third-party reservation companies from listing, advertising, promoting, or selling reservations without written agreements with restaurants.

Any person who violates the ban could face a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for each violation. Customers will also have the ability to sue companies for listing fraudulent reservations online.

“They will post their reservations on a platform like OpenTable or Resy, which they have a third-party agreement with,” said Rep. Margaret Croke (D-Chicago). “Then, another service will go and take all of those reservations with a bot and sell those on a third party.”

Sponsors said they have seen some reservations resold at prices as high as $700.

This law passed unanimously out of both chambers this spring and will take effect Jan. 1.