Credit Cards: Fees and Charges

Question

The UK and EU negotiating teams have reached agreement on the terms of an Implementation Period that will start on 29 March 2019 and last until 31 December 2020. During the Implementation Period, the UK will no longer be a Member State of the European Union, but market access will continue on current terms. This would mean that the current ban on surcharging consumer credit and debit cards, as set out in the second Payment Services Directive, would apply during an Implementation Period.

In the event that the UK leaves the European Union without a Withdrawal Agreement or Implementation Period, credit and debit card transactions with UK payment cards in EU member states could become more expensive and surcharges may be applied, given the UK would be treated as a third country in relation to the EU. As the second Payment Services Directive, which currently bans surcharging for consumer credit and debit cards issued in EU Member States, would no longer apply to UK payment cards, any changes would be a result of the laws of individual EU Member States. The UK Government cannot legislate with respect to surcharges applied by merchants in the EU, and any decision to apply a surcharge would be a commercial decision by the merchant.

Merchants in the UK will continue to be banned from applying surcharges to payments made by a consumer credit or debit card issued by a provider based in the UK.