Under a new law signed by Governor Murphy, New Jersey businesses must be transparent with credit card transactions. The law prohibits a merchant from imposing a surcharge that is more than the cost the seller has to pay to process the credit card payment. The bills signed by the Governor are A4284/S3508.
NFIB opposed the law because surcharge fees, while not new, have become prevalent in many industries as a way for businesses to recoup some of the exorbitant fees placed on credit card transactions by credit card processing companies.
Effective immediately, businesses must disclose the amount of the surcharge to a customer prior to the customer incurring any charge for goods or services. Certainly, transparency is important for customers, but the law doesn’t recognize the drastic inconsistency in card swipe fees.
A better solution has been introduced in Washington, D.C.
Spearheaded by NFIB, the bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act of 2023 will enhance competition and choice in the credit card network market, which is currently dominated by the Visa-Mastercard duopoly. Injecting real competition into the credit card network market would provide small businesses a meaningful choice and help reduce swipe fees while holding down costs for Main Street.
