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Payments Regulation in Asia
In countries or locales where surcharging has been permitted by law, merchants are often required to be transparent about the surcharge. This means that customers must be clearly informed about the additional fee before they make the purchase. There are broadly three types of surcharges: product-level, brand-level, and blanket surcharges (Table 3). Each has unique use cases and regulatory permissions and can depend heavily on how the country has regulated or guaranteed surcharging rights.
Table 4. Description and Characterization of Types of Surcharges and Cash Discounts
CASH DISCOUNTING BY COUNTRIES
In lieu of a surcharge, some merchants may choose to offer the consumer a discount for using cash. This has not been widely regulated, and below follows an examination of regulatory interventions on this subject. Australia – Card surcharging is legal in Australia, allowing for customers to use cash as a way to avoid card surcharges. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) states that if the customer has no way of avoiding a card surcharge (i.e., the merchant does not accept cash), the business must properly display the cost of the card surcharge. 19
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https://www.accc.gov.au/business/pricing/card-surcharges
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