No More Merchant Card Surcharging, United Arab Emirates Panel Rules

Effective July 1, retailers in the United Arab Emirates no longer may assess surcharges to customers who pay by credit card under a ruling last week from the country’s Supreme Committee for Consumer Protection.

The committee passed the resolution to stop retailers from charging commissions on credit card use, a spokesperson at the Ministry of Economy, which oversees the committee, tells PaymentsSource. The committee acted after the ministry and its associated departments received repeated complaints from card customers, he says.

“We were informed that retailers were levying a charge of 1% on small-ticket transactions and as much as 5% to 6% on the bigger transactions,” the spokesperson adds.

Ministers within the United Arab Emirates in February began planning a series of enforceable regulations that would put more teeth into prohibitions against merchants assessing surcharges on credit card purchases (see story).  Those moves came after government agencies started receiving complaints that many merchants were charging credit cardholders roughly 1.5% of the transaction amount to offset the fees they pay to accept cards.

After July 1, merchants assessing a credit card surcharge face both jail time and fines, the spokesperson says.

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