A native French man claimed that U.S. travelers are getting targeted for tips while they’re out to eat in France. The reason? Just because they’re American and are accustomed to tipping culture.
Julien Samani (@julien_samani) begins his video by speaking directly into the camera from his car and shares how he came to this revelation.
“Paris is becoming sneaky because they started asking for tips. And I think that was especially designed for American tourists. We don’t do 15, 20, 25% service charge in France—that is not part of the culture,” he briefly explains, as it’s not a common practice in France to tip waitstaff.
Should You Tip In France?
“At most you would leave a couple of euros here and there as like an extra tip. But you never, ever pay for service,” he clarifies.
Samani details that a question that comes at the end of almost every transaction in the U.S. has now appeared in Paris, but only for tourists from the U.S.
“I just went to Paris two times in the last two months. And I saw that whenever you want to pay, they hand you the little machine, and they tell you the famous phrase, ‘Oh, it’s just gonna ask you a little question,’” he says.
A Case Of Mistaken Identity
Samani then explains why he specifically believes Americans are being targeted by this practice.
“Now why do I think that this is specifically designed for Americans? Because just last week I was having lunch at a cafe. When it was time to pay, it was a different server who I hadn’t interacted with who came to bring my bill,” Samani tells his viewers.
He says the worker brought him “the little machine to pay by card.”
Samani adds, “Now I was wearing my L.A. hat, so he thought I was American. He didn’t know I’m born and raised in France. And so he takes my card, charges me. And then he hands me the machine, and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, it’s just gonna ask you a little question.’”
But at this point in his interaction, Samani says he decided to reveal his nationality to the restaurant worker by speaking French. This surprised the employee, who began also speaking in French to Samani, telling him not to worry about the tip. “Put $0, put $0,” Samani says the server instructed, referring to the gratuity amount on the portable point-of-sale system.
The conversation sparked Samani’s curiosity, and he says he quickly put two and two together.
“I see what you’re doing here,” he remarks aloud to his followers. “There are so many tourists yearly in Paris that they’re like, ‘You know what? We’re going to capitalize on that. And let’s try to make extra money,’” Samani concludes as his video comes to a close.
The ‘American Tax’
In March of 2026, a woman penned a viral warning in a Facebook group dedicated to Parisian travel. She says she was having a lovely first French restaurant experience at a cafe with an “amazing” waiter “a block from the Eiffel Tower.” However, things went south fast after the server asked her where she was from and learned it was the U.S.
“The server personally took his calculator and sat it next to me on my table and calculated a tip. He increased my bill from 58 to 67 to cover his tip. I was shocked,” she shared. “He did amazing service and I was already going to leave a few euros. I gave him 65. He stood over me while I was in my wallet. Food was great, he did great, the restaurant was cute but being treated differently and adding pressure ruined it all.”
Others who replied to her post stated that they’ve encountered this double-standard while traveling abroad as well. “This scam is well-known to Americans, especially near the Eiffel Tower,” one commenter said.
But there were those who said that Americans have no one else to blame but themselves for getting hit with gratuity on their tabs while traveling outside the U.S. “Americans are ruining Europe travel with their tipping habits – don’t comprehend that wait staff get a living wage and are not exploited in their home country,” another said.
So what kicked off this purported jump in tip requests? It’s hard to say, but one woman noticed that it all began after Americans were visiting France during the Olympics a few years ago. “I’ve gone to Paris numerous times over the last 45 years & this issue of waiters asking for tips only started after Paris hosted the Olympics,” she wrote.
Tipping Culture Shock
The ethics of tipping have been an ongoing debate probably since the inception of gratuity itself, which some have argued dates back to just around after the Civil War ended in 1865.
This debate made headlines yet again during the 2026 World Cup when non-U.S. citizens who visited were flabbergasted by the bills they received at restaurants. In fact, some establishments began automatically appending service charges to bills to counteract the hordes of out-of-country diners who outright refused to leave a tip.
BroBible reached out to Julien Samani via email.
@julien_samani I see you Paris… 😂 #france #paris #tippingculture #tips #europe