Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending the prohibition under regulation 6A(1) of The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 to include minimum payment surcharges by retail merchants to their customers as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Business are generally free to set out acceptable terms of payment from consumers.

For most retail payments, the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations ban merchants from charging a fee in addition to the advertised price of a transaction on the basis of a consumer’s choice of payment instrument (for example, consumer credit or debit cards, or e-money). The cases in which surcharges are banned are set out in regulation 6A(1). The Government is examining a range of ways to support businesses and consumers in these difficult times, but there are no plans to review this legislation at present.