UK to outlaw card surcharging from 2018
(17 July 2017 – United Kingdom) All consumer-facing card fees, for both credit and debit purchases, will be outlawed from next year under new EU regulations.
From January 2018, merchants caught charging customers for card payments will be ordered by authorities repay the fees, with those who refuse facing hefty fines.
According to the Treasury, the UK ban will apply to consumers paying with Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and American Express cards.
The new regulations follow a recent EU rule change which capped “interchange fees” on credit and debit cards – paid to payment providers from shops and passed onto consumers – could be no more than 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent receptively.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Barclay, said: “Rip-off charges have no place in a modern Britain and that’s why card charging in Britain is about to come to an end. This is about fairness and transparency, and so from next year there will be no more nasty surprises for people at the check-out just for using a card."
In addition, the rules will also ban corner shops from charging customers to make small payments by card, meaning they may raise the limit for card spend to £10.
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