A service advertises a price of $12. When the customer tries to pay, the service provider adds a $2.50 convenience fee for using a debit or credit card and refuses to take any other form of payment.
The $12 price was posted, as was the convenience fee. But is it legal for them to say something costs $12 if there is literally no way to get it for that price?
ETA: This was an in-person purchase. And yes, I asked to pay in cash and was refused.
It is not legal to charge a surcharge for paying with a credit or debit card unless the card is a commercial one. This rule is set out in Regulation 6A(1)(a) of the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012:
(1) A payee must not charge a payer any fee in respect of payment by means of —
(a) a payment instrument which —
(i) is a card-based payment instrument as defined in Article 2(20) of Regulation (EU) 2015/751 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29th April 2015 on interchange fees for card-based payment transactions ; and
(ii) is not a commercial card as defined in Article 2(6) of that Regulation
I think this may be legal at the moment. In October 2023, the FTC announced a proposed rule to prohibit "junk fees" that are not disclosed upfront. They held an unformal hearing on this in April 2024.
But as far as I've been able to tell, this new rule has not yet been enacted. So "surprise" fees at checkout time are still legal.
The Australian Consumer Law requires a) an all inclusive price to be stated and b) some mechanism for actually paying that all inclusive price.
It is not unlawful to charge surcharges for different payment types provided they are reflecting the actual cost to the business of accepting that payment. That is, if investigated, the business must be able to demonstrate that the surcharge is rationally related to the cost of the payment method. So, if the credit card provider charges say 0.7%, a surcharge of say 1% is probably justifiable; over 10% as here probably isn’t.
Notwithstanding, there must still be a method of paying the all inclusive price and no more. So, if a business charges for every payment method, the advertised price must include the surcharge for the least expensive payment method.
This is... complicated.
What you describe would be illegal, because
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB)
§ 270a Vereinbarungen über Entgelte für die Nutzung bargeldloser Zahlungsmittel
Eine Vereinbarung, durch die der Schuldner verpflichtet wird, ein Entgelt für die Nutzung einer SEPA-Basislastschrift, einer SEPA-Firmenlastschrift, einer SEPA-Überweisung oder einer Zahlungskarte zu entrichten, ist unwirksam
Translation:
Civil Code (BGB)
§ Section 270a Agreements on charges for the use of cashless means of payment
An agreement obliging the debtor to pay a fee for the use of a SEPA core direct debit, a SEPA business-to-business direct debit, a SEPA credit transfer or a payment card is invalid
Bascially says that I can pay with my German Debit Card and no business is allowed to charge a fee for that. They do not have to accept my card, but if they do, they cannot charge extra.
It is legal to charge extra for services that in turn charge your account by the same (SEPA) means. So for example if you put your card as a payment option into Paypal or SofortÜberweisung, services that charge the seller an extra fee over what a SEPA transaction would cost, it is legal for the seller to charge the buyer/consumer extra for usage of those services.
I say it is complicated, because the highest court ruled on it, after lower instances went back and forth on it:
https://www.bundesgerichtshof.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/2021067.html
