For payment method surcharges, displaying isn’t mandatory like that which exist for public holiday or weekend surcharges. For payment surcharges such as credit cards, the ACCC states:
Where there are other ways for a consumer to pay without incurring a surcharge or other fees, businesses should display these charges in a prominent way so that consumers are aware of the additional costs before payment.
I have bolded the word should. It isn’t must. If one looks at public holiday and weekend surcharges, the ACCC states:
However, if they charge such a surcharge, they must include these words on the menu:
A surcharge of [percentage] applies on [day or days].
These words must be at least as prominent as the most prominent price on the menu.
Again my bolding of the word must. It must be done, unlike payment surcharges.
This wording has allowed some business to use merchant payment systems which charge surcharges post payment and the merchant may not know the charge applied to the payment (hence it isn’t displayed). These surcharges aren’t displayed on tax invoices or payment receipts. This has been raised elsewhere in the community as could be seen as a loophole in the current requirements.
Business which charge payment surcharges should display any payment surcharges. They aren’t however compelled to do so, but not doing so may leave a bad taste in the mouth of consumers when they only find out a surcharge has been applied during the payment or after the payment process (such as added to the transaction total when debited from their bank account).
Edit: As mentioned elsewhere, we run our own business and don’t support consumers being charged payment surcharges. Surcharges should be part of the cost of doing business, especially when businesses chose payment options and their merchant payment provider. Passing on costs of surcharges isn’t in the interest of financial efficiency/reducing payment costs in the economy as businesses have no incentive to shop around for cheaper merchant fees (such as least cost routing where merchant fees are about half of some other more traditional options)
