New Jersey's 2023 law caps credit card fees at sellers' actual costs and requires notice before you pay. Here's how to read the line on your receipt, why enforcement stopped after one big sweep, and the bill that could extend the rules to debit and gift cards.
In December 2023, New Jersey penalized 30 businesses in a consumer-fraud crackdown, 16 of them over credit card fees their customers never saw coming. Nearly three years later, the Division's public enforcement record shows no new surcharge case. The law behind the fee cases never banned the fee. It caps it, tells sellers when they must disclose it, and hands every cardholder two questions worth asking about the line on a receipt.
That law is P.L. 2023, c.146, which then-Governor Phil Murphy signed on August 18, 2023. It covers credit card transactions in New Jersey for goods other than motor fuel and for services. The line on the receipt gives a cardholder two questions to ask. Was the card a credit card? Did you see the amount before you owed it? The third test, whether the amount exceeds what the sale cost the store, is one a receipt can't answer. That's the Division's job: the statute arms it to inspect the books.
The statute covers credit cards and nothing else, so its cost cap and advance-disclosure test do not reach a surcharge on a debit, gift or prepaid card. Those fees must still be disclosed under the Consumer Fraud Act's general disclosure rules, and Visa and Mastercard ban debit and prepaid surcharges on their own.
New Jersey uses the same word for two different charges. The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission also bills a 'surcharge,' a state-assessed penalty tied to your driving record, and it has nothing to do with the card reader.
The ceiling is what the transaction cost the seller to process, and everything below that is the seller's choice: different rates for different cards, each disclosed, or one flat rate. The Division has offered the example of a store charging 2% on every credit transaction even when some cards cost more than that to accept. What the law forbids is charging more than a transaction actually cost, disclosure or not. There is no fixed percentage cap; the 2.5% figure that circulated while the bill was moving never made it into law. The card networks add their own ceilings on top, 3% on Visa and 4% on Mastercard — but those are network rules, not state law.
Where the notice goes depends on where the sale happens. A store must post the amount on a clear and conspicuous sign at the point of entry and again at the point of sale. A restaurant must post it on the menu — menu boards and QR menus included — and in the customer service area. A website, mobile app or electronic kiosk must carry the notice on the checkout page before the transaction processes, and a telephone seller must give it verbally before running the card.
Whatever the venue, the notice has to carry the amount, meaning a sign that says only "a surcharge applies" fails while a percentage passes, and the Division has said a handwritten sign or a sticker on the menu counts so long as the amount shows clearly and it's posted where the rules require.
Several other charges share the receipt and follow different rules. Under the card networks' rules, a convenience fee is a flat charge tied to an alternate payment channel, the fee for paying by phone instead of by mail. A cash discount is the standard price reduced for cash, which a seller may offer outright.
Government offices and schools may also assess service fees under the card networks' own programs, which is why the card fee on a municipal tax payment answers to the networks and not to P.L. 2023, c.146. The statute defines a seller as a person selling, leasing or renting goods or services to a customer, and no reported decision has tested whether it reaches public fee programs.
A seller that fails the cost or disclosure test commits an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud Act, and the penalty structure is the act's own. The Attorney General's office can assess up to $10,000 for a first offense, $20,000 for each subsequent offense and $30,000 for a scheme aimed at senior citizens or people with disabilities. A customer who paid an unlawful fee can sue for three times the loss plus attorney's fees, and class actions are available.
"This law provides consumers with greater price transparency and allows the Division to take action against merchants that use credit card surcharges to make a profit," said Cari Fais, the Division's acting director, when the law took effect in 2023.
The year-long sweep ended with civil penalties for 30 businesses, the Division announced on December 19, 2023 — fines running $500 to $4,000 apiece for concealed card fees and registers that refused cash. The Division cited 16 of them, named across nine counties from Bergen to Sussex, for failing to disclose their surcharges. Riverside BBQ in Riverside, Burlington County, and Merryman's Pub in Pitman, Gloucester County, were the two South Jersey names among the 16. In Hudson County, the legwork came from the county's own Office of Consumer Protection.
The crackdown did not come out of nowhere. In July 2022 the Division sent cease-and-desist warnings to 14 businesses. In February 2023 it issued violation notices to four, among them a Hoboken coffee shop in Hudson County that refused cash, and, in Bergen and Passaic counties, a Hillsdale bagel shop and a Clifton cafe, both adding fees without telling customers up front.
The Division's year-end 2024 enforcement highlights, published February 28, 2025, recount actions against home improvement contractors, car dealerships, moving companies, firearms retailers, vape shops and securities firms, and include no surcharge entry.
A complaint about a credit-card fee that fails the cost or disclosure test starts with the Division's complaint form, downloadable online or sent by mail after a call to 800-242-5846; the receipt is the evidence. A debit-card fee belongs to a different enforcement channel: Visa and Mastercard prohibit surcharges on debit outright under their own rules, and both take reports from cardholders. A private lawsuit over a few dollars is a heavy tool for one customer, though the Consumer Fraud Act's fee-shifting keeps class actions a live threat for sellers with volume.
The bill pending in Trenton would close that gap in statute. S-4107, which passed the Senate 40-0 in June 2026 and now sits with the Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee, would prohibit surcharges on debit and gift card transactions, turning network contract rules into state law. It has not had an Assembly hearing, and nothing in those two questions changes unless that happens.
Any receipt's fee comes down to two questions: was it a credit card, and did you see it before you owed it? The cost test happens in the Division's inspection room, not at the register. Keep the receipt. A fee that fails is worth a complaint.
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Sources
• New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, "Credit Card Surcharges: Frequently Asked Questions" (revised December 11, 2023)
• New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, "Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs Warn Businesses to Cease and Desist From Failing to Disclose Total Selling Price of Merchandise, Including Surcharges for Using Credit, Debit or Pre-Paid Cards" (July 2022)
• New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, "AG Platkin, Division of Consumer Affairs Announce Educational, Enforcement Actions Providing Financial Protections for New Jersey Consumers as They Shop, Dine, and Travel this Holiday Season" (December 19, 2023)
• New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, "AG Platkin, Division of Consumer Affairs Announce 2024 Consumer Protection Enforcement Highlights" (February 28, 2025)
• New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, Surcharge Violation System program materials (2021)
• New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, "AG Platkin Announces Several Violations at Businesses for Not Accepting Cash and Charging a Credit Card Surcharge Without Required Notice" (February 7, 2023)
• New Jersey State Law Library, Legislative History Checklist, A-4284/S-3508, P.L. 2023, c.146 (n.d.)
• NJ Legislature, P.L. 2023, c.146 (N.J.S.A. 56:8-156.1 and -156.2), approved August 18, 2023
• NJ Legislature, S-4107, "An Act concerning the use of debit cards or gift cards to pay for goods or services"; passed Senate June 18, 2026; pending Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee (as of September 22, 2026)
• NJ Legislature, Senate Commerce Committee, Statement to S-4107 with committee amendments (May 18, 2026)
• Office of the Governor of New Jersey, "Governor Murphy Signs Legislation to Safeguard New Jersey Consumers Against Unfair Credit Card Surcharges" (August 18, 2023)
• John Reitmeyer, "How NJ is enforcing transparency for credit card 'swipe fees'," NJ Spotlight News (August 24, 2023)
• Mastercard, "U.S. Merchant Class Settlement Mastercard Frequently Asked Questions: Merchant Surcharge" (n.d.)
• Visa, "Merchant Surcharging Q&A" (n.d.)
• Visa, "Visa Core Rules," surcharging, convenience fee and service fee provisions (n.d.)
• Holland & Knight, "New Jersey Acts to Limit Credit Card Surcharges" (August 30, 2023)
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