New this month
Surcharges on Visa, Mastercard, American Express and eftpos ended on 1 October 2026
The ACCC says: “Businesses can no longer charge a surcharge for payments made using Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos credit, debit or prepaid cards from 1 October 2026.” The Reserve Bank of Australia announced the changes on 31 March 2026; the ‘no surcharge’ rules are set by each card network and enforced by the networks and payment service providers, while the ACCC and the state and territory consumer protection agencies enforce the consumer law against misleading claims about prices and the reasons for price rises.
Still allowed
- Building the cost of accepting cards into your overall prices.
- Other fees that don’t depend on how the customer pays, including weekend and public holiday surcharges in hospitality.
- A discount for paying a particular way, such as cash or PayID, if it is disclosed before the customer books, orders or pays.
Not allowed
- Calling a card surcharge by another name; the ACCC says that may be misleading conduct.
- Telling customers a price rise is due to the surcharge change when other costs are part of the reason.
- The ACCC says businesses should not show only the discounted price for a payment method, or make it more prominent than the full price.
The ACCC’s own example is a hair salon that charged $60 for a haircut plus a 1.0% credit card surcharge. Folding the card cost into the price would make the haircut $60.60; if the salon instead raises it to $65 because energy and labour costs have also gone up, it must not tell customers the rise is because of the surcharge change.
The Ombudsman’s list for the changeover suggests checking every place a surcharge might still be applied: eftpos terminals, point-of-sale systems, invoicing software and online payment platforms; taking surcharge wording off menus, websites, booking systems and invoices, except notices about weekend or public holiday surcharges; and making sure staff can explain any price changes.
Prices
Showing a price that is the whole price
- One figure, the minimum total. Show the total price as a single figure: the lowest amount a customer could pay, including taxes and any unavoidable or pre-selected fees, and any surcharge that applies every day of the week.
- No drip pricing. Say at the start of an online purchase which fees will apply and when, instead of adding them along the way.
- Two prices showing. If the same item shows two different prices, even by mistake, sell at the lower one or stop selling it until the price is corrected. The same applies when the checkout price differs from the displayed one.
- Was and now. A ‘was’ price is misleading if the item wasn’t sold at that price for a reasonable period right before the sale.
Prices shown only to other businesses don’t have to include GST. The details and the exceptions are on the ACCC’s price displays page.
When you sell
Refunds and repairs you can’t sign away
Consumer guarantees cover, among other things, that a product is of acceptable quality, fits a purpose the customer told you about, and matches its description, and that a service is done with due care and skill within a reasonable time. The ACCC is plain about what a business can’t do to these rights:
- display a ‘no refunds’ sign, or say refunds aren’t available at all, or not after a certain number of days;
- say it isn’t responsible for problems with what it sold;
- suggest the customer must sign an extended warranty to keep these rights;
- tell the customer to take a problem to the manufacturer instead.
What you owe depends on how serious the problem is. For a major problem with a product, the customer can choose a refund or a replacement; for a minor one, you must fix it or repair it for free, and you can choose to offer more. A refund should be the full amount paid, with nothing taken off for use, and in the same form as the original payment unless you both agree otherwise.
You don’t have to give a refund when a customer simply changes their mind, but if you have a change-of-mind policy, you must follow it. And before repairing a product that can store user data, or a repair that may use refurbished parts, you must give the customer a repair notice. The ACCC’s repair, replace, refund, cancel page explains what counts as major.
When you buy
Your business as the customer
The ACCC says: “A business can be a consumer too. A product or service bought for business use is covered by consumer guarantees, when it meets at least one of the following conditions:”
- it costs less than $100,000, including GST;
- it is commonly bought for personal, domestic or household use;
- it is a vehicle or trailer used mainly to carry goods on public roads.
Even then, it isn’t covered if you bought it to resell, to use or transform in production or manufacturing, or to repair or treat other goods. The ACCC’s examples set the two side by side: a $500 portable air conditioner for a dental practice is covered, while $20,000 of grain fed to cattle that will be sold is not, because it is used in production.
Contracts offered on a take-it-or-leave-it basis carry another protection. Since 9 November 2023, proposing, using or relying on an unfair term in a standard form contract is banned, and penalties can apply. A small business is protected for any new or varied standard form contract from that date if it has fewer than 100 employees or less than $10 million in annual turnover. The ACCC’s unfair contract terms page explains what makes a term unfair.
Where to take it
Who deals with what
The ACCC doesn’t resolve individual disputes between consumers and businesses, or between businesses, and doesn’t give legal advice about a particular situation. It does accept reports about a business doing something it shouldn’t, and uses them in its education and enforcement work. You can report an issue affecting your business to it. For help settling a dispute with another business, see board 6, free help.