E-Commerce Websites & Card Surcharges: Change in Legislation

Do you operate an e-commerce website?

According to this article on the BBC, businesses are no longer able to charge customers a fee for paying by debit or credit card. The directive known as the Payment Services Directive will be enforced from Saturday 13^th January 2018, as per this article from the BBC. The legislation will be incorporated into UK law and, therefore, will remain following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

The legislation includes bans on surcharges for Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Paypal transactions (BBC, 2017).

According to the BBC, consumers spent approximately £470 million on such charges in 2010, with airlines and takeaways amongst the highest-charging businesses. There is speculation that the change in law may result in companies simply raising prices for products and services to compensate. However, this approach is considered to be more transparent, and is welcomed by industry experts.

If you operate a travel website, please see this ABTA article for further details.

If you add surcharges for card payments and would like us to review the code, please raise a ticket via the Support System.