Card Surcharges in the Northern Territory: A Practical Compliance Guide

Businesses in the Northern Territory must not add card-payment surcharges for Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos. Other surcharges may remain lawful, but misleading price explanations are a separate risk.

Businesses operating in the Northern Territory should remove any separate surcharge for Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos payments. The restriction applies to credit, debit and prepaid cards, and businesses should reflect payment-processing costs in their general prices rather than adding them at checkout.[S1]

The rule is not a general ban on every fee charged by a business. A fee or surcharge that is unrelated to the customer’s payment method may still be permitted, provided it is lawful, clearly disclosed and not misleading.[S1]

Which card surcharges must be removed?

A business must not add a separate payment surcharge when a customer pays using a Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos credit, debit or prepaid card.[S1]

This covers common descriptions such as:

• “Credit card fee”
• “Visa surcharge”
• “Mastercard surcharge”
• “Amex fee”
• “eftpos surcharge”
• A percentage added automatically when a customer chooses one of those cards

The restriction is concerned with the reason for the charge: if the amount is added because the customer pays by one of the affected cards, it should not remain as a separate surcharge.[S1]

Businesses should check every payment channel, including physical terminals, online checkouts, phone payments, invoices, booking systems and third-party ordering platforms. A compliant point-of-sale terminal does not fix a surcharge that remains active in an online or manual payment process.

What businesses can still charge

The restriction does not prohibit fees that are unrelated to how the customer pays.[S1] For example, a hospitality business may still charge a weekend or public holiday surcharge, provided the charge satisfies applicable pricing and consumer-law requirements.[S1]

Other potentially separate charges might include a booking, delivery or service fee. The key question is whether the fee is genuinely connected to the product or service, rather than being a disguised charge for using a particular card.[S1]

A business should not relabel a card surcharge as a “service fee” if the fee is triggered only by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos payment. Changing the label does not change the substance of the charge.

Separate risk: misleading price explanations

Removing card surcharges does not remove the general obligation to present prices accurately. The Australian Consumer Law prohibits businesses from misleading people about the prices they charge.[S1]

This creates a separate compliance risk. A business may avoid a prohibited card surcharge but still mislead customers if its advertised price, menu, quote or booking page does not clearly explain an unavoidable fee.[S1]

For example, a price explanation may create problems if it:

• Advertises a low base price but adds an unavoidable fee only at the final payment step
• Describes a mandatory charge as optional
• Uses “no surcharge” wording while adding a fee that is effectively imposed for card use
• Fails to explain whether a fee applies per transaction, item, booking or person
• Presents a weekend or public holiday surcharge too late for customers to make an informed decision

The safest approach is to show the total payable price as early as practicable and explain any unavoidable additional charge prominently. Descriptions should match the actual reason for the fee.

What Northern Territory businesses should do

1. Audit payment settings

List every payment method accepted by the business and identify any fee attached to each one. Check debit, credit and prepaid transactions separately, along with contactless, online and manually entered payments.

Remove rules that automatically add a percentage or fixed amount for Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos payments. Confirm that the change has propagated to websites, apps, terminals, invoices and booking platforms.

2. Review customer-facing wording

Search menus, price lists, quotations, terms and conditions, receipts, email templates and checkout screens for references to card fees. Delete outdated wording and replace it with accurate descriptions of any fees that remain.

A general fee should not be described as a card fee, and a card fee should not be disguised as a general fee.

3. Price card-acceptance costs properly

Businesses still incur costs when accepting card payments, but those costs should be built into the overall prices of products or services rather than recovered through a separate surcharge for the affected cards.[S2]

Businesses should review margins, advertised prices and internal budgets instead of transferring the same cost to customers at checkout.

4. Train staff

Staff should know that they must not add an unauthorised card fee manually, suggest that customers use cash to avoid a card charge, or describe a general surcharge inaccurately. Training should cover refunds, phone orders and situations where a customer challenges a fee.

5. Keep evidence of the review

Retain screenshots, terminal settings, provider correspondence and updated price materials showing what was changed. Good records can help identify errors and demonstrate that the business took practical steps to maintain compliant systems.

Who enforces the restriction?

The “no surcharge” requirements are established through card-network rules and merchant arrangements. Card networks and payment providers are responsible for enforcing those rules, rather than the ACCC.[S1]

The ACCC remains relevant to misleading pricing and consumer-law concerns. A business that removes a card surcharge but uses unclear or inaccurate price descriptions can still face a separate compliance issue.[S1]

Practical customer-facing checklist

Before publishing or accepting a price, confirm that:

• The displayed price does not exclude an unavoidable card-payment surcharge.
• Visa, Mastercard, American Express and eftpos surcharges are disabled.
• Any remaining surcharge is unrelated to the payment method.
• Weekend, public holiday, delivery or booking fees are clearly explained.
• The same information appears online, in-store, over the phone and on receipts.
• Staff and payment providers have been told about the changes.

The central compliance principle is straightforward: do not charge extra because a customer uses an affected card, and do not explain other fees in a way that gives customers a false impression of the final price.