Mass. restaurant groups and small-business advocates press legislature to allow credit‑card surcharges and curb fees

Lawmakers heard competing pitches on credit‑card fees and interchange rules during a Joint Committee hearing that drew restaurant owners, labor and business groups, payment networks and consumer advocates.

Representatives of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, small restaurant owners and the National Federation of Independent Business urged the committee to pass bills that would allow businesses to add a disclosed convenience fee or surcharge for credit‑card payments and to ban charging fees on taxes and tips collected by merchants. They said the current cost of card processing is squeezing thin restaurant margins and that Massachusetts is one of two states currently prohibiting surcharges.

The issue matters because restaurants said card fees are applied to full transaction totals — including sales tax and gratuities — and because card use is common: testimony said over 80% of meal tax payments are expected to be made by card this year. “Credit card fees used to be about 50% of our sales. Post pandemic they were over 90%,” Kathy Turner of Turner Seafoods told the committee. Turner testified her three restaurants paid…