Restaurants, small‑business groups urge lawmakers to allow credit‑card surcharges and block fees on taxes and tips

At a hearing of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, restaurant owners, trade groups and other small‑business advocates urged lawmakers to let merchants add optional convenience fees for credit‑card payments and to bar card processors from charging interchange fees on taxes and tips.

Supporters said the changes would reduce an outsized cost for small operators and restore parity with other states; opponents from the payments industry and some credit unions warned that some bills would be technically infeasible, invite legal challenges and could destabilize the payments system.

The argument from the restaurant sector was straightforward: processing fees are large and growing. “This happens in restaurants every single day,” Jessica Moore, director of government affairs for the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, told the committee, citing industry data and a petition from hundreds of operators. Moore said restaurants nationwide pay millions annually in fees and asserted that restricting merchants from recovering…