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Restaurants press for ban on fees applied to tax and tips; payments industry warns of legal and technical risks
Summary
Restaurant owners and industry associations urged passage of bills to prohibit interchange fees on tax and gratuity, contending that those fees impose a significant burden on small, low‑margin businesses.
Independent restaurants, regional operators and the Massachusetts Restaurant United coalition told the Joint Committee on Financial Services that Senate Bill 6‑88 and House Bill 12‑59 would stop card networks and issuers from applying interchange fees to the tax and gratuity portions of a transaction.
Jessica Moore of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association said the average Massachusetts restaurant pays around $50,000 annually in credit‑card processing and that, "Passing this legislation would save Massachusetts restaurants at least $64,000,000 annually in swipe fees." Owners testified with concrete examples:…
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