“Work is continuing as we carefully consider the feedback received, and we’re committed to getting it right,” Brewer said.
“Australia has taken its own approach, and we’ll be watching with interest as it beds in over there.”
Brewer said the Commerce Commission’s decisions to cut interchange fee caps are expected to save Kiwi businesses up to $290 million a year once fully in place.
“Lower payment costs for businesses should mean a fairer deal for shoppers at the checkout,” he said.
Today, Labour’s Commerce and Consumer Affairs spokesperson Arena Williams took aim at the National government over its stalled bill to ban surcharging.
“National have spent three years trying to ban surcharges with posturing,” she said.
“We’re just going to get on and do it.”
Williams said Labour’s Payment Systems regime from 2021 provides the “perfect architecture” to ban surcharges.
“Ask the Commerce Commission to regulate merchant fees. The Commerce Commission has already said they should be about 1%. That’s how we would go about it,” she said.
Jessica Walker, Consumer NZ’s communications and campaigns manager, told the Herald support for a surcharge ban was getting stronger.
“Our stance is the surcharging situation is a real mess. The best way to clean it up is an all-out ban,” she said.
“That lack of consistency, a lack of transparency, is really from our perspective a problem.”
Walker said New Zealand was “quite far behind” Australia and the United Kingdom, where the surcharges were banned.
Recent findings from a Consumer NZ survey found three in five Kiwis support a ban on card payment surcharges.
She said as of July, just 21% of people think it’s fair for businesses to pass those costs on, down from 28% in April.
“We still do receive a steady stream of people complaining to us about the high surcharges that they have encountered,” Walker said.
However, there remain significant concerns from businesses, who would be left to foot the bill if surcharges were banned.
Retail New Zealand chief executive Carolyn Young has said many retailers were not in a position to absorb the merchant service fee, which businesses pay their bank or payment provider to process credit and contactless debit card transactions.
“Retailers have been clear that the proposed card surcharge ban would have been yet another blow to the struggling sector after a tough trading environment that has lasted several years,” she said.
What has Australia done?
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) card surcharge reforms mean businesses are no longer permitted to add a surcharge when customers pay with eftpos, Visa or Mastercard.
The move means more pricing certainty at the checkout for shoppers.
The RBA is also lowering domestic interchange fee caps – being the portion of card payment costs that flows to the customer’s bank.
Australian Banking Association chief executive Simon Birmingham said the changes removed a common bugbear for consumers, who will no longer face an extra fee just for choosing to pay by card.
“From [October 1], the price on the shelf or on the menu will be the price you pay at the checkout. That goes for paying a bill or shopping online too,” Birmingham said.
“Whether it’s paying the plumber or buying a coffee, you will no longer be hit with an extra few cents or dollars for tapping your card.”
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