Is it legal in Florida for a restaurant to charge customers who pay with a credit or debit card a convenience fee to cover the credit card company’s fee?
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Is it legal in Florida for a restaurant to charge customers who pay with a credit or debit card a convenience fee to cover the credit card company’s fee?
A local restaurant is now charging customers who pay with a credit or debit card a
fee of 5 of their total bill. Is this legal to do in Florida? Have never seen any other
place ever do that. Thank you
Asked on April 12, 2016 under Business Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
Yes, it is perfectly legal: 1) there is no no law saying that a convenience fee cannot be charged; and 2) there is a cost to accepting credit cards, and the law does not require the vendor/seller to absorb that cost--they may pass it on to their customers. This used to be fairly common in some situations, such as gas stations, where credit card customers would pay a higher per gallon price for gas.
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