The Short Answer: from 1 October 2026, businesses accepting Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos cards will no longer be able to add a separate surcharge because the customer pays with one of those cards. The change covers credit, debit and prepaid cards on the relevant networks.
For franchise networks, this is not merely a change to the payment terminal. Head office may control menus, websites, apps and recommended pricing, while each franchisee holds its own merchant facility and contracts directly with customers. Unless the rollout is coordinated, the same system could present compliant prices in one outlet and prohibited card surcharges in another.
What is Changing?
From 1 October 2026, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will permit designated card networks to introduce rules prohibiting businesses from imposing card-payment surcharges. Visa, Mastercard and eftpos have each decided to introduce those rules from that date. American Express, although not regulated by the RBA in the same way, has also decided to remove surcharging from 1 October 2026.
The practical effect is that merchants will be bound through card-scheme rules and their merchant or payment-service-provider contracts. The prohibition is therefore not a new blanket statutory offence administered by the ACCC. Card networks and payment providers will enforce their no-surcharge rules. The ACCC and state and territory consumer regulators will continue to police misleading pricing and other Australian Consumer Law issues.
Until 30 September 2026, the existing law continues: a business may impose a card surcharge, but it must not exceed the business’s permitted cost of accepting that payment type. From 1 October, that cost can still be recovered through the overall price of goods or services, but not as a separate surcharge for using the affected cards.
What Can Businesses No Longer Charge For?
From 1 October 2026, a business must not add an extra amount simply because a customer pays using any of the following payment types:
- eftpos debit or prepaid card;
- Mastercard debit, credit or prepaid card;
- Visa debit, credit or prepaid card; or
- American Express credit card.
The rule applies to the card transaction, not merely to a plastic card used at a counter. A card surcharge processed online, through an app, by telephone or via an invoice-payment portal is still a surcharge if it is added because the customer pays using one of the affected card networks.
Businesses should not attempt to preserve the same charge by renaming it an “administration fee”, “processing fee”, “technology fee” or “service fee” where the fee is in substance triggered by the customer’s use of the card. The ACCC warns that disguising a card surcharge in this way may also amount to misleading conduct.
What Can Businesses Still Charge?
| Charge or Pricing Practice | Position From 1 October 2026 |
| Visa, Mastercard, eftpos or Amex card surcharge | Not permitted under the announced network rules where the amount is added because the customer pays using that card. |
| Weekend or public holiday surcharge | Still permitted in principle. Hospitality businesses must continue to comply with the specific menu-display rules and the Australian Consumer Law. |
| Genuine booking, service or delivery fee | Still permitted if it is genuinely separate from the payment method, clearly disclosed and reflected in the required total-price display. It cannot be a card surcharge under another label. |
| Higher all-inclusive product or service price | Permitted. A business may incorporate card-acceptance costs into its overall prices, but must not mislead customers about the amount or reason for an increase. |
| Cash or PayID discount | Permitted. The full, non-discounted price must be displayed, and the discounted price must not be more prominent. |
| Surcharge on a non-card payment method | Not addressed by the RBA card-surcharge change itself. Businesses should check provider contracts and comply with Australian Consumer Law pricing requirements. |
Important Qualifications: The RBA states that businesses, including not-for-profits, are not automatically exempt; any exemption would need to arise under a card network’s rules or under law. Business-to-business card payments are also not automatically exempt. Taxi surcharging remains subject to applicable state and territory regulation. Scheme rules and any exceptions may change, so merchants should confirm their position with their payment provider.
Invoices and Payments Spanning the Changeover
The relevant time is likely to be when the card payment is made. The RBA says that if an invoice is issued before 1 October but paid by card on or after that date, surcharging may no longer be available. Businesses should therefore remove card-surcharge wording from invoice templates and payment links before the changeover, not only from point-of-sale signage.
Why Franchise Networks Need a Coordinated Response
A franchise system may have several layers of responsibility: the franchisor may design the customer journey and publish national prices; franchisees may contract with customers and hold merchant facilities; and a third-party provider may configure terminals, gateways or apps. A network-wide implementation plan should identify the owner of each change.
Pricing decisions require particular care. Franchisees generally remain responsible for setting their own resale prices, subject to the franchise agreement and competition law. A franchisor can provide compliance guidance and may recommend prices, but should not use the surcharge change as an occasion to impose or coordinate minimum resale prices. Any system-wide pricing direction should be reviewed for resale-price-maintenance and broader competition-law risk.
Practical Checklist Before 1 October
- Map every payment channel: countertop and mobile terminals, online checkout, apps, telephone payments, recurring billing, invoice portals and QR-code payments.
- Ask each payment provider when and how card-surcharge functionality will be disabled, and whether any network-specific exceptions apply.
- Remove surcharge notices and settings from menus, counter signage, receipts, websites, apps, advertising, quotes, invoices and terms and conditions.
- Separate genuine fees from payment-method charges. Document the purpose and basis of any booking, delivery, service, weekend or public holiday fee that will remain.
- Review price displays. If card-acceptance costs are built into overall prices, ensure the advertised price is accurate and any explanation for an increase is not misleading.
- Check franchise agreements, operations manuals and supplier arrangements to identify who controls payment systems, pricing materials and implementation costs.
- Issue a clear franchisee implementation notice, obtain completion confirmations and test a sample of outlets and digital channels before and after launch.
- Train customer-facing staff to explain the change and establish a process for promptly correcting errors or refunding an incorrectly applied surcharge.
The Key Message
From 1 October 2026, the affected card-processing cost does not disappear; the separate card surcharge does. Franchise systems should use the remaining weeks to align payment-provider settings, customer-facing prices, franchisee instructions and competition-law safeguards. The strongest implementation will be both technically complete and legally coherent across every outlet and sales channel.
Disclaimer
This article provides general information as at September 2026. It is not legal advice and should not be relied upon as a substitute for advice about a business’s merchant contracts, pricing arrangements or franchise system. Card-network rules and any exceptions should be confirmed with the relevant payment service provider.