surcharge-law

---
name: surcharge-law
description: Takes every way your venue currently adds to a bill because of how the customer is paying, the card machine settings, the online booking page, the printed menu note and the wording your staff actually say, and returns a dated ruling on each one against the surcharging ban, a rewritten set of customer facing lines for the ones that must stop, a short written record of the lawful alternatives you have chosen instead, and the exact places the wording has to change. Use when someone suggests passing the card fee on, when a card machine has been set up with a percentage added, or when you want the minimum spend sign to survive a complaint.
---

# A written answer on what you may and may not add to a bill for paying by card, and new wording for every place it is currently wrong

You give this your card machine settings, your booking and deposit pages, your menus, your table talkers, your terms and the sentence your staff say when a card comes out. You get back a ruling on each one, the rule it rests on quoted, replacement wording where a practice has to stop, and a written record of what you chose to do instead. It will not design a way around the ban. The prohibition on charging a consumer for using a card is short, it has been in force since 13 January 2018, and most of the clever workarounds an owner gets told about in a trade forum are the same prohibited charge wearing a different name.

## What it does

1. **Find the rule in the right place, because almost everyone cites it wrongly.** The ban is regulation 6A of the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012. It was not in those Regulations originally. It was inserted by the Payment Services Regulations 2017, Schedule 8 paragraph 12(6), and came into force on 13 January 2018. The Payment Services Regulations 2017 have no regulation 6A of their own, so a note or a supplier email pointing you at one is pointing at something that does not exist. Write the correct citation at the top of the file, because the first thing that happens in a dispute about a surcharge is that somebody checks.

2. **Read what regulation 6A(1) actually prohibits, which is wider than cards.** A payee must not charge a payer any fee in respect of payment by means of a card-based payment instrument as defined in Article 2(20) of the Interchange Fee Regulation that "is not a commercial card as defined in Article 2(6) of that Regulation". It goes on to cover a payment instrument that is not card based and would not be a commercial card if the definition were read across to instruments generally, and payment services covered by the euro credit transfer and direct debit Regulation. In a venue that means a consumer debit card, a consumer credit card, a consumer prepaid card, and the phone and watch payments that ride on them. There is no de minimis, no exception for small transactions, and no exception for a business that finds the fee painful.

3. **Hold on to the two places a charge is still lawful, and write them down precisely.** The first is a commercial card. Article 2(6) defines it as a card "issued to undertakings or public sector entities or self-employed natural persons which is limited in use for business expenses where the payments made with such cards are charged directly to the account of the undertaking or public sector entity or self-employed natural person". Regulation 6A(2) still caps what you may charge on any instrument: a payee "must not charge the payer, in respect of such payment, a fee which exceeds the costs borne by the payee for the use of that specific payment instrument". The second, for a consumer contract, is regulation 4, which says a trader "must not charge consumers, in respect of the use of a given means of payment, fees that exceed the cost borne by the trader for the use of that means". So a commercial card surcharge is possible, it must be costed from your own statements, and it must be disclosed before the customer commits.

4. **Check whether your contract is even inside regulation 4, then notice that it does not save you.** Regulation 5 limits regulation 4 to sales and service contracts other than a list of excluded ones, including social services, health services, gambling, banking and insurance, residential accommodation rental, and contracts concluded by automatic vending machines. Serving food and drink is not on that list. It is worth doing the check and recording the answer, because owners are frequently told their trade is somehow outside the rules. It is not, and regulation 6A applies to any payee and any payer regardless of that list.

5. **Rule on each practice one at a time and write the reasoning beside it.** A percentage added at the card machine for a consumer card: prohibited. A flat fee added to a card bill: prohibited. A booking fee applied only to card payers: prohibited. A higher menu price shown for card: this is the same charge arranged differently and must be treated as prohibited unless the owner's solicitor advises otherwise, and that advice is recorded. A discount for cash, arranged as a single price with a stated reduction for cash payers: lawful, and expressly protected by the next step. A minimum spend for card payments: not a fee in respect of the use of a means of payment, but it is a term of sale that has to be displayed before the customer orders, and it should be recorded as a commercial decision with a date rather than a legal certainty. A surcharge on a commercial card: lawful within the cost cap of regulation 6A(2).

6. **Use the steering rights you have, because they are real and they are written down.** Regulation 66(3) of the Payment Services Regulations 2017 says the payee's payment service provider may not prevent the payee from "requesting payment of a charge by the payer for the use of a particular payment instrument", from "offering a reduction to the payer for the use of a particular payment instrument", or from "otherwise steering the payer towards the use of a particular payment instrument". Article 11(1) of the Interchange Fee Regulation prohibits any rule in a licensing agreement, scheme rules or an acquirer agreement "preventing payees from steering consumers to the use of any payment instrument preferred by the payee", and Article 11(2) prohibits any rule preventing payees "from informing payers about interchange fees and merchant service charges". You may offer a cash discount, you may put up a sign, and you may tell a customer what cards cost you.

7. **Check what you are obliged to display if you are not accepting every card.** Article 10(4) of the Interchange Fee Regulation requires payees that decide not to accept all cards of a scheme to inform consumers "in a clear and unequivocal manner, at the same time as they inform consumers of the acceptance of other cards", and to display that information "prominently at the entrance of the shop and at the till". A venue that has quietly turned off a card type at the terminal has taken on a display duty it almost certainly has not met. This gets a line in the output with the physical location of each sign.

8. **Rewrite every customer facing line that has to change, in the owner's own voice.** Every prohibited practice found in step 5 produces replacement wording: the sentence for the menu, the line on the booking page, the note on the terminal, and the sentence the team says at the table. Wording that survives a complaint is short and does not explain itself. A sign that argues with the customer about card fees invites the argument it is trying to prevent.

9. **Hand the recording and the cross checking to Codex, after you have made every ruling.** Put the photographs, screenshots, menu files, terminal configuration notes and your rulings in one working folder and run, from that folder:

   ```
   codex exec --sandbox danger-full-access --skip-git-repo-check -C "<working folder>" - < CODEX.md
   ```

   Claude hands over the list of practices, your ruling on each, the quoted rule for each, the replacement wording and the list of locations where each line appears. Codex returns the practice register, the change schedule with a location for every instance, the commercial card cost working where one exists, and a gaps file. Codex never rules on lawfulness and never drafts customer facing wording.

10. **Date the file, name the person responsible for each change, and set the review trigger.** The rule has been stable since 2018, but a card machine gets replaced, an online booking system gets reconfigured, and a new manager reads a forum post. Record the date, the person who owns each change, the date each change was made, and the one trigger that brings the file back out: any new payment method, any new terminal, or anybody proposing to add anything to a bill because of how the customer is paying.

## Then it checks

1. Every practice found is recorded with the exact customer facing wording as it appears today and the physical or digital location it appears in.
2. Every ruling names the specific provision it rests on, and the citation for the ban reads as regulation 6A of the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 rather than of the Payment Services Regulations 2017.
3. Every practice ruled prohibited has replacement wording drafted and a named location list, with nothing left as "update the menu".
4. Any surviving surcharge applies only to a card the owner has recorded as a commercial card, and carries a cost working traceable to a named merchant statement.
5. The file states whether every card type presented at the terminal is accepted, and where a type is refused, names where the required notice is displayed.
6. No sentence in the output suggests a method of recovering card costs from a consumer that the file has ruled prohibited, including by renaming it.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never state the percentage of UK venues that surcharge, the typical size of a surcharge, or what customers will tolerate. No published figure exists for an independent UK venue, and an owner who believes a borrowed number will either start charging something unlawful because it sounds normal or abandon a lawful cash discount because it sounds unusual.
- Never design a route around the ban. Renaming a card surcharge as an administration fee, a service fee, a processing contribution or a technology charge does not change what it is, and a charge applied only when a consumer pays by card is caught however it is described.
- Never set the level of a commercial card surcharge from anything except the owner's own statements. The cap is the cost the payee bears for that specific instrument, and a figure taken from a competitor or a supplier's suggestion is not a cost the owner has borne.
- Never present a minimum spend as free of risk. It is not a payment surcharge, but it is a term of the sale, and it has to be displayed before the customer orders rather than produced at the till.
- Never leave a prohibited practice in the file without replacement wording and a location. A finding with no replacement wording is a finding that is still on the menu next month.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own menus, terminals and booking pages, and for their solicitor or trade body to check before any wording is printed or any charge is applied. It applies published rules to practices you describe. It is not legal advice and it is not a ruling that any charge you make is lawful.

## Built from
- The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012, regulation 6A, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3110/regulation/6A, inserted with effect from 13 January 2018 by the Payment Services Regulations 2017 Schedule 8 paragraph 12(6), read 23 September 2026: the prohibition itself and the cost cap, in steps 1, 2 and 3.
- The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012, regulation 6B, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3110/regulation/6B, read 23 September 2026: the territorial application of regulation 6A, in step 2.
- The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012, regulations 4 and 5, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3110/regulation/4 and https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3110/regulation/5, read 23 September 2026: the consumer contract cost cap and the list of excluded contracts, in steps 3 and 4.
- The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012, table of contents, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3110/contents, read 23 September 2026: confirmation of the structure of the Regulations and of the order of regulations 4 to 8, in step 1.
- The Payment Services Regulations 2017, table of contents, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/752/contents, read 23 September 2026: confirmation that these Regulations contain no regulation 6A, in step 1.
- The Payment Services Regulations 2017, regulation 66, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/752/regulation/66, read 23 September 2026: the payee's right to request a charge, offer a reduction or steer, in step 6.
- Regulation (EU) 2015/751 on interchange fees, Article 11, as it applies in the UK, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2015/751/article/11, read 23 September 2026: the prohibition on scheme and acquirer rules that prevent steering or prevent informing payers about fees, in step 6.
- Regulation (EU) 2015/751, Article 10, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2015/751/article/10, read 23 September 2026: the duty to display prominently at the entrance and at the till where not all cards are accepted, in step 7.
- Regulation (EU) 2015/751, Article 2, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2015/751/article/2, read 23 September 2026: the definition of a commercial card that regulation 6A(1) depends on, in step 3.

# surcharge-law

## You are given
Every practice in one UK hospitality business by which an amount is added to, or varies on, a customer's bill because of the payment method. For each one: the exact customer facing wording as it appears today, copied character for character; every location it appears in, listed individually, whether that is a printed menu, a table talker, a window sign, a till prompt, a card terminal configuration screen, a booking confirmation email, a deposit page, a terms and conditions page or a sentence staff are trained to say; the amount or percentage; the payment methods it applies to; and the date it was introduced where the owner knows it. The card terminal configuration export or a photograph of each relevant setting screen. The list of card types the terminal is configured to accept and the list it is configured to refuse. The owner's ruling on each practice, stated as `prohibited`, `lawful`, `lawful with conditions` or `refer to solicitor`, together with the provision the owner relied on. The owner's replacement wording for every practice ruled prohibited. Where a surcharge on commercial cards is to continue, the merchant statement lines the owner has used to cost it. The named person responsible for each change and the date each change is to be made. Every judgement call, including every ruling on lawfulness and every word of customer facing wording, has already been made by the owner and is supplied to you.

## Produce
Write into a `./surcharge-law-output/` folder:

1. `practice-register.csv` with these columns in this order: `practice_ref`, `practice_name`, `current_wording_verbatim`, `amount_or_percentage`, `basis`, `applies_to_methods`, `date_introduced`, `owner_ruling`, `provision_relied_on`, `ruling_source`. `practice_ref` is P001 upward. `basis` is exactly one of `percentage_of_bill`, `flat_fee_per_transaction`, `flat_fee_per_booking`, `different_price_by_method`, `minimum_spend`, `discount_for_method`, `other`. `owner_ruling` is exactly one of `prohibited`, `lawful`, `lawful with conditions`, `refer to solicitor`. `ruling_source` is exactly one of `owner ruled`, `not ruled`. Every row with `not ruled` is listed in `gaps.md`.
2. `locations.csv` with columns: `location_ref`, `practice_ref`, `location_type`, `location_description_verbatim`, `medium`, `reachable_by`, `change_required`, `replacement_wording_verbatim`, `owner_responsible`, `target_date`, `completed_date`. `location_type` is exactly one of `printed_menu`, `table_card`, `window_or_door_sign`, `till_prompt`, `card_terminal_setting`, `website_page`, `booking_flow`, `confirmation_email`, `terms_and_conditions`, `spoken_script`, `other`. `medium` is exactly one of `print`, `screen`, `device_setting`, `spoken`. `change_required` is `yes` or `no`. One row per individual location, never one row per practice. `completed_date` is left empty until the owner supplies it.
3. `prohibited-practices.md` a numbered list of every practice where `owner_ruling` is `prohibited`, each entry giving the practice reference, the current wording verbatim, the count of locations it appears in, the replacement wording verbatim, and the provision the owner relied on. No commentary is added and no alternative charge is proposed.
4. `commercial-card-costing.csv`, produced only where the owner has recorded a continuing surcharge on commercial cards, with columns: `statement_period`, `statement_line_verbatim`, `commercial_card_turnover_gbp`, `commercial_card_cost_gbp`, `cost_percent_of_value`, `surcharge_applied_percent`, `within_cost_cap`, `source_document`. `within_cost_cap` is `yes`, `no` or `cannot be tested`, and is `cannot be tested` wherever the turnover or the cost is missing. No figure in this file is calculated from anything other than a supplied statement line.
5. `card-acceptance-notice.csv` with columns: `card_brand`, `card_category`, `accepted`, `notice_required`, `notice_location_entrance`, `notice_location_till`, `notice_wording_verbatim`. `accepted` is `yes` or `no`, copied from the terminal configuration the owner supplied. `notice_required` is `yes` wherever `accepted` is `no`, and `no` otherwise. Any row with `notice_required` as `yes` and either notice location empty is listed in `gaps.md`.
6. `change-schedule.csv` with columns: `change_ref`, `location_ref`, `practice_ref`, `what_changes`, `from_wording_verbatim`, `to_wording_verbatim`, `owner_responsible`, `target_date`, `completed_date`, `evidence_of_change`. `evidence_of_change` is left empty until the owner supplies a photograph reference, a file name or a screenshot reference. Sorted by `target_date` ascending.
7. `citation-sheet.md` recording, on separate lines and nothing else: the full citation of the surcharging prohibition as the owner supplied it, including the instrument that inserted it and the date it came into force; the full citation of the cost cap on consumer contracts; the full citation of the payee's steering rights; and the full citation of the display duty where not all cards are accepted. Each line ends with the URL the owner supplied for that provision. Nothing is added to this file that the owner did not supply.
8. `gaps.md` a numbered list of: every practice with no owner ruling; every practice ruled prohibited with no replacement wording; every practice with no location list; every location with no named owner or no target date; every continuing commercial card surcharge with no costing line; every refused card type with no recorded notice location; and any wording the owner supplied as a description rather than as the exact text on display.

## Rules
- Codex records, cross references, counts and schedules. It never rules on whether a practice is lawful, never drafts or edits customer facing wording, never proposes an alternative charge, and never decides whether a card is a commercial card. All of that was supplied.
- Never write the words lawful or unlawful into any file except by copying the owner's own ruling from the input.
- Never calculate or suggest a surcharge percentage. Where a costing is produced, it divides supplied cost by supplied turnover and reports the result; it does not recommend a figure to charge.
- Never merge locations. Five printed menus carrying the same sentence are five rows, because five of them have to be reprinted and one of them will be missed.
- Never state or record a figure for how many venues surcharge, what a usual surcharge is, or what customers accept. No such figure exists for a single independent UK venue and none is to be recorded.
- Never treat a description as wording. If the owner supplied "the menu mentions a card fee" rather than the sentence itself, the row is recorded with the description flagged and listed in `gaps.md`.
- Use British English, GBP written as `GBP` or the pound sign, and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write, and any supplied text containing one is recorded verbatim and flagged in `gaps.md`.
- Every quoted customer facing line, statement description and provision citation is copied exactly, including its punctuation and capitalisation.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own menus, terminals and booking pages, and for their solicitor or trade body to check before any wording is printed or any charge is applied. It records rulings made by the owner and is not itself legal advice or a ruling that any charge is lawful.

## Return
The absolute path of every file written, the row count of each CSV, the number of practices by ruling, the total number of individual locations requiring a change, the number of those locations by medium, the list of practices ruled prohibited that still have no replacement wording, whether a commercial card surcharge continues and if so whether it passed, failed or could not be tested against the cost cap, the list of refused card types with no recorded notice location, the earliest and latest target dates in the change schedule, and the `gaps.md` item count.