From October 2026 you cannot apply card processing surcharges on Visa, Mastercard or EFTPOS transaction

This is a regulatory change overseen by the RBA. RBA faq on this can be found here

https://www.rba.gov.au/payments-and-infrastructure/review-of-retail-payments-regulation/2026-03/conclusions-paper/faqs/

Removing surcharging from your c9 instore transactions

If you have surcharging setup in your c9 make sure before Oct 1 you remove this. This is strictly every c9 customers responsibility to do this. This is not something we at c9 will do.

1. Setup -> main setup screen
2. Goto payments tab
3. click on ‘more’ next to each payment system where you have surcharging configured
4. Make sure you unselect the highlighted option below
   
5. click close. Make sure you click Ok in bottom right of setup screen to apply these changes

If you use till/nuvei for online weborder processing there is another adjustment you must make which you must perform.

1. Setup -> main setup screen
2. Goto eftpost/paypal tab
3. click on ’till payments gateway configuration’
4. make sure ‘no surcharge option is selected’
   
5. click continue. Make sure you click Ok in bottom right of setup screen to apply these changes

Surcharging managed by your eft terminal

If you have surcharging computed on eft terminal itself you’ll need to confirm your eft provider has a plan in place already with disabling this an whether or not that requires action from you.

C9 e-comm Website surcharging

Actual surcharge reporting and capture on c9 websites will be disabled by us. Invoicing back in your c9 may still be subject to surcharging so make sure you review settings as described above.

Merchant fees

One disappointing aspect of these RBA changes is that it doesn’t appear that there are actual any regulatory constraints on what banks and card processing providers are going to bill merchants such as yourself and I guess it is reasonable to expect the processors are not going to change their pricing at all. All RBA regulates is what banks and procesors charge one another. Whether or not those savings are passed on is entirely upto disretion of acquiring/processing providers.

Considering this, contact us if you need help changing pricing in c9 if you were previously charging surcharges and you want to manage losses caused with Oct 1 with price changes.

Special consideration – paypal

If you have paypal on c9 e-comm website note you can continue to surcharge this payment system. There is no regulatory requirement to remove these.

Special consideration – AMEX

Note that AMEX are not subject at all to this RBA ruling, but inspite of this they have decided to amend their merchant agreement to disallow surcharging but do not appear to offer any sort of fee compensation in return. Very cynical action on their behalf which they are using to drive adoption so expect in time to see more and more customers present with AMEX since from POV of the customer it now appears to be the ‘same’. if you currently accept AMEX, consider how to manage this additional harm.