Credit card surcharge by Dutch company - illegal?

[foxyrider]

I have no idea. As I said, credit cards are not used much because the alternatives are far more attractive for both consumers and shops. Most people do not have credit cards, and many shops, including supermarkets, do not accept them. Only people like me who travel a lot abroad and have to book hotels have them.

I don't recall having had any issues using my Visa debit card in Holland although there seems to be an assumption both there and in Germany that Visa means credit card which has caused issues a couple of times. I don't have a credit card which seems to add to the confusion.

Not tried contactless abroad as yet.

[thirdcrank]

For a stick-in-the-mud type like me, SEPA Zone was a new one which I had to look up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Euro_Payments_Area

It is indeed a newish one, dating from 2015. AFAIK, one of the points often made by the anti-€uro camp was that banks used to charge for transferring dosh from a bank in one Eropean country to one in another European country, even if both banks were branches of the same bank.

The thing about European retailers was illustrated, of course, by the so-called discounters initially refusing payment by credit card. Market forces prevailed and they dropped that policy PDQ.
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This from George Canning in 1826

In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch
Is giving too little and asking too much; ...

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/canning.html

[mjr]

I have no idea. As I said, credit cards are not used much because the alternatives are far more attractive for both consumers and shops. Most people do not have credit cards, and many shops, including supermarkets, do not accept them. Only people like me who travel a lot abroad and have to book hotels have them.

I didn't think shops saw much difference between contactless credit cards, contactless debit cards and contactless phone payments any more. Basically, the card processors had to make contactless more attractive for shops to upgrade their card readers to take an often-less-authenticated card payment type and part of that was applying debit-card-style fee structures to all of it. After all, it worked for debit card payments, which many retailers initially wouldn't accept in part because it required upgrades and many UK consumers wouldn't use in part because it removed the opportunity to check the payments before you actually transferred the cash.

I've paid for various things in NL with a Mastercard over the last few years. I'm pretty sure I've used it contactless in Jumbo and Lidl but I couldn't swear to it. I think we paid for meals with a credit card in a small bar in Vlissingen and a larger restaurant in Renesse last year. I think it would have stood out in my mind as unusual if it had been refused anywhere.

I know why alternatives are more attractive for shops, but I don't see why they would be for consumers: for example, consumers get to keep earning the interest on the amount paid for a month and a half (arguably offset by the increased prices shops have to charge to cover the high rates charged by the failing card processing market - but now they can't surcharge cards, shops have to cover that even if you pay cash) and they can get the bank to mediate in disputes.