Canadian businesses can pass on new additional fees on credit cards to their customers starting today. The new rule allows merchants to charge consumers what is known as interchange or swipe fees, following a multi-million dollar class action settlement involving Visa and Mastercard, which allowed Canadian businesses to claim a discount of up to $5000 in credit card fees. Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), told CTV Your Morning on Thursday: "Canadians pay some of the highest credit card processing fees in the world." Also, businesses that wish to add credit card fees must display signs indicating that they have additional fees, and explicitly show them on receipts, but the additional cost option will not be available in Quebec due to the province’s consumer protection laws.

In the same context, a report issued by CFIB this week found that 19 percent of small businesses are considering additional fees to offset processing fees, while 26 percent said they would use them if their competitors or suppliers did so. However, the survey found that businesses that frequently sell to other businesses are more likely to add the additional cost, while businesses serving consumers were less likely to fear losing business. Forty percent of small businesses surveyed were unsure whether they would add additional fees, while 15 percent do not intend to.

The Liberal government had committed in its last budget to reducing these fees but is still working on consultations. Meanwhile, research conducted by the Bank of Canada last year found that consumers still pay much more than they get back in credit card reward points due to fees embedded in retail prices, with low-income consumers bearing a disproportionately high net cost.