quote:
Originally posted by Mrs.M:
I assume that is because the UK either has a law that allows the surcharge or it lacks a law that affords Paypal the authority to stop it!
I don't think there has ever been any problem in the UK with any seller quoting any price he wants for anything and varying that price according to methods of payment. However it used to be the case that credit card companies contracts with their sellers would insist on no surcharges being applied for credit card transactions. Since 1991 such 'no discrimination' agreements have been illegal for credit cards (the act only dealt with credit cards, not charge cards or debit cards) though agreements limiting such surcharges to actual costs incurred in the transaction could still be made.
It is a legal requirement in the UK that any surcharges are made clear in advance. So any seller on eBay who tries to hit you with a PayPal surcharge, for example, after the event is breaking the law.
Quite what the full legal situation is with PayPal where the source of funds could be debit cards or a 'balance' isn't clear to me. It might be that they would be entitled to insist no surcharges were made if the payment wasn't taken from a credit card, however I can't see any practical way they could work it even if they wanted it to.