The Commerce Commission (Commission) has published its decision to introduce interchange fees on commercial credit card transactions, with the changes taking effect on 22 April 2027.

This decision follows on from the Commission's previous decision to cap interchange fees for debit cards and personal credit cards.  Together with earlier caps on personal card interchange fees, the Commission expects total business savings may reach $290m per year.

An interchange fee is a charge paid by the merchant's payment service provider (the acquirer) to the customer's card-issuing bank or provider (the issuer) each time a transaction is processed through the Mastercard or Visa network.  These fees form a significant component of the merchant service fees businesses pay to accept Mastercard and Visa commercial credit card payments, amounting to around $125m annually.

Our previous article providing more detail on the Commission's regulation of interchange fees can be found here.

Some key points from the final decision are:

  • New interchange fee caps for commercial credit card transactions: a fee cap of 0.70% has been set to apply to in-person payments, and 1.10% for online payments.  Whilst this represents a 0.2% increase to the domestic fee caps proposed by the Commission in its June 2026 draft decision, the Commission notes that the estimated impact remains unchanged from the draft decision

  • For foreign-issued commercial credit cards, an interchange fee cap of 0.70% (in-person payment) and 1.50% (online payment) will apply

  • A six-month implementation period applies from the release of the final decision – participants must implement the interchange fee caps for both domestic and foreign-issued commercial credit cards by 22 April 2027.

The Commission will monitor merchant service fees and conduct targeted reviews to ensure fee savings are passed through to merchants, with the broader aim of benefiting consumers through downward pressure on retail prices and/or surcharge rates.

What should businesses do to prepare?

The Commission had previously held back from capping commercial credit card fees, flagging that further intervention might follow and it has now followed through.  Whether the caps deliver the intended savings to merchants will depend on acquirers passing reductions through in full and on time, which the Commission has signalled it will scrutinise closely.  As with earlier rounds of regulation, there remains a question of whether lower interchange revenue will dampen investment and innovation in the payments sector.  Businesses should review their merchant service fee arrangements with their payment providers ahead of the April 2027 implementation date.

This article was prepared by Lily Hosseini (solicitor), Janet Liu (senior solicitor) and Andrew Suggate (partner).