Merchants can pass on the reasonable costs of card acceptance, such as merchant service fees, to cardholders.
ASIC has announced that ALDI has undertaken to improve signage and other point-of-sale communication about the disclosure of credit card surcharges in its supermarkets following concerns raised by ASIC.
ASIC was concerned that ALDI did not:
•consistently disclose in all of its stores that there is a 0.5% surcharge for consumers paying by credit card, and
•specifically disclose that transactions made using ‘tap and go’ contactless payment systems are also subject to the 0.5% surcharge, which applies in ALDI stores where either a credit card or debit card is used.
Under the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (ASIC Act), a failure to adequately disclose surcharges, or creating the impression that surcharges do not apply, may be misleading or deceptive.
ASIC considered that disclosure of the 0.5% surcharge on the credit card terminal screen after customers insert or swipe their card to pay for their purchase was too late, particularly in stores where there was no other disclosure.
ASIC was also concerned that for all contactless payment transactions, which are currently treated as credit card transactions for all merchants, there was no specific disclosure at all in ALDI stores that these transactions also attract the 0.5% surcharge irrespective of whether customers used a debit or credit card.
Reform of customer surcharge regulation was discussed in the Financial System Inquiry Interim Report.
