Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 March 2018
50. Deputy Bobby Aylward asked the Minister for Finance the status of payment service directives which govern the application of a surcharge by a trader exactly equal to the charge applied by a bank to that trader for all debit and credit card transactions under €12; his views on whether this practice is acceptable and legal under the payment services directives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10464/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI understand this question to relate to the prohibition on surcharging - the practice where a merchant charges an extra fee for receiving a payment made using a payment card - contained in Article 62 of the revised EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2). That Article provides that a payee shall not request charges for the use of a payment instrument for which interchange fees are regulated under Chapter II of the EU Interchange Fee Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2015/751.
PSD2 was transposed into Irish law by the European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 6 of 2018) and Regulation 86 of the transposing Regulations gives effect to this prohibition, meaning that a merchant cannot surcharge on the vast majority of consumer credit and debit cards.
It should be noted that the prohibition on surcharging does not cover transactions with commercial cards or transactions with payment cards issued by three party payment card schemes. Where surcharges are allowed, the European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018 provide that they must not exceed the direct costs borne by the payee to accept the card.
PSD2 and the EU Interchange Fee Regulation form part of a legislative package. The EU Interchange Fee Regulation halved the interchange fee charged to retailers to 30 basis points for credit cards, and the corresponding fee for domestic consumer debit cards was reduced to 10 basis points with effect from 9 December 2015. These changes significantly reduced the costs of accepting card payments, as interchange fees make up part of the overall charges collected by acquirers from retailers.
