FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Surging credit surcharges in the US (2019 - 2023)?
Old Oct 16, 2023 | 11:03 am
  #365  
tmiw
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Originally Posted by rasheed
Doesn't matter much if people like how California approaches laws, but it is obvious that what happens here tends to create copy versions across the country (the most famous is the vehicle emission rules, but more recent ones like universal school lunch and maybe even the upcoming banned food colors/additives). At least for the emission laws and the banned food coloring, it is not likely that a California only version of the products would be made.

I was thinking one of the new laws which has many effects on travel (resort fees and related) may also impact card surcharges. I haven't seen any notification from the networks, but I can't imagine this will be an exception.

https://sd09.senate.ca.gov/news/2023...rt-tickets-etc

SB 478
Merchants have historically not respected even the current (IMO reasonable) rules around surcharging, so I don't expect them to start do so in response to SB 478.

Also, the bigger merchants are already pretty good at having different pricing/fees for different areas given the number of state and local sales taxes and fees that exist in this country. It wouldn't be a huge stretch to have different pricing with zero fees only for their California locations (which coincidentally happens to work out to be the same as the lower pricing with fees elsewhere). And IP geolocation is reasonably accurate enough that they can do the same for online purchases, too.
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