Garden State Times

Governor Murphy has signed a new law in New Jersey requiring businesses to be transparent about credit card transaction fees. The legislation, identified as A4284/S3508, prohibits merchants from imposing surcharges that exceed the cost incurred by sellers for processing credit card payments.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) opposed this law. According to NFIB, surcharge fees have become common across various industries as businesses attempt to recover some of the high fees imposed by credit card processing companies.

Effective immediately, the law mandates that businesses must inform customers about any surcharge amount before they incur charges for goods or services. While transparency is highlighted as important for consumers, critics argue that the law does not address inconsistencies in card swipe fees.

An alternative solution has been proposed at the federal level. Led by NFIB, the bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act of 2023 aims to enhance competition and choice within the credit card network market, which is currently dominated by Visa and Mastercard. This initiative seeks to introduce real competition into the market, providing small businesses with more options and potentially reducing swipe fees while controlling costs for Main Street.