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Australia source reference

Australian card-surcharge transition

Official framework, network-rule and price-display boundaries for the Australian card-surcharge transition from 1 October 2026. This Australia source reference supports 1 Margin101 public page.

Official sourceReferencelabour and employment

Current monitored claims

ValueScopeLabel
From 1 October 2026The RBA removes its prohibition on designated card networks imposing no-surcharge rules; it does not directly regulate merchants.RBA framework effective date
eftpos, Mastercard and Visa debit, prepaid and credit card transactionsOnly the designated-network scope described by the retained RBA evidence; other payment methods and separate surcharge regimes are excluded.Designated network and card scope
Network rules, merchant contracts, provider implementation, exceptions and applicable law determine the merchant-facing positionMargin101 does not inspect merchant contracts, determine whether an exception applies or give personalised legal advice.Network rule and merchant contract boundary
Checked 30 July 2026: eftpos, Mastercard and Visa had each decided to introduce no-surcharge rules from 1 October 2026Dated status only. Network rules and exceptions may change; businesses should confirm their applicable contract with their payment provider.Designated network announcement status
Businesses must continue to follow current card-payment-surcharge laws until 1 October 2026Pre-transition boundary only; it is not a permanent post-transition instruction.Current law before the transition
A card surcharge must not exceed the cost of processing that payment type under current ACCC guidancePre-transition educational boundary only. Margin101 does not calculate a lawful surcharge or determine which costs a particular business may include.Current cost-of-acceptance cap
If consumers have no way to pay without a surcharge, the minimum surcharge is included in the displayed priceBounded to the retained ACCC price-display guidance; separate sector and non-card rules are excluded.Minimum price display
Applicable payment surcharges should be displayed clearly and prominently before booking, ordering or paymentGeneral ACCC display guidance only; it is not personalised legal advice or a provider-contract determination.Prominent surcharge display
The full price remains the primary displayed baseline and any payment-method discount is clearly qualifiedThe business must identify qualifying payment methods and the discount; Margin101 does not prescribe a discount.Payment-method discount display
Businesses continue to incur card-acceptance costs and may consider those costs in overall pricingNo provider rate, market average, demand response or default surcharge is supplied.Continuing card-acceptance costs
Review payment plans or providers, understand statement cost drivers and consider payment-method discountsEducational decision options only; Margin101 does not prescribe one optimal response or determine contract permission.Card-acceptance cost management options

Source status

Official source
Reserve Bank of Australia and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Status
verified
Cadence
monthly
Last checked
2026-07-30
Effective
2026-10-01
Version
2026-07-30

Source link

Margin101 checks this official page on the cadence shown here and links it to the public tools, methodologies and guides that depend on it.

Open official source

Why Margin101 tracks this source

Official framework, network-rule and price-display boundaries for the Australian card-surcharge transition from 1 October 2026. It is kept within the australia small-business data layer so linked Margin101 pages can state their market assumptions and evidence scope clearly.

Page fit

  • Market: Australia
  • Category: labour and employment
  • Authority: Reserve Bank of Australia and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

Reader note

  • Margin101 uses this source only for the pages listed below.
  • Market-wide background lives on the hub, not repeated on every source page.

Source monitoring history

See when this source record was first published, what changed, and what later checks of the official source found.

  1. Initial publication

    Published the verified Australian card-surcharge transition source reference in the en-au DataHub.

    Source
    Reserve Bank of Australia and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission — Australian card-surcharge transition
    No change
    Margin101 checked the archived official evidence supporting Australian card-surcharge transition.
    Change type
    published

Used by Margin101

Related data in this market/category

Source notes

Reserve Bank of Australia card-surcharge transition material and ACCC card-surcharge and price-display guidance. The monitored claims are educational reference context; the scope shown in the table controls how Margin101 uses each claim.