The Reserve Bank of Australia has released a Conclusions Paper and a new card surcharging standard following the Payments System Board’s Review of Card Payments Regulation. Background.

Merchants will retain the right to impose a cost-based surcharge on card payments, but any surcharge will be limited to the amount it costs the merchant to accept that type of card for that transaction. Under the Government’s recent amendments to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, the new standard will ensure that consumers using payment cards from designated systems (eftpos, the debit and credit systems of MasterCard and Visa, and the American Express companion card system) cannot be surcharged in excess of a merchant’s cost of acceptance for that card system.

Eligible costs are clearly defined in the standard in percentage terms; merchants will not be able to impose high fixed-amount surcharges on low-value transactions.

The ACCC will have enforcement powers under the new framework, which will take effect for large merchants on 1 September 2016 and for other merchants on 1 September 2017.

A summary of the new regulatory framework is provided in the Q&A on the Reserve Bank’s website.