Cruisin Motorhomes cops penalty

Cruisin Motorhomes has paid a penalty of $12,600 after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) accused the RV rental business of breaching Australian consumer laws.

The ACCC alleged that, in January 2018, Cruisin Motorhomes were in breach of excess payment surcharge laws when the company charged Visa and MasterCard customers a 2 per cent surcharge, despite the cost of processing the payment ranging from 0.41 to 1.48 per cent.

The excess payment surcharge laws provide that businesses can only pass on to customers what it costs them to process a payment.

“The ACCC alleged that Cruisin Motorhomes imposed credit and debit card surcharges that were higher than its cost of processing the payments. This practice is prohibited by the Competition and Consumer Act 2010,” ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said.

“If businesses choose to impose a surcharge, they can only charge customers what it costs them to process a payment," he said.

“Businesses need to ensure the credit and debit card surcharges they impose comply with the law or they risk facing ACCC action."

The ban on excessive surcharging for card payments came into effect for all businesses on in September last year.

The ACCC said that Cruisin Motorhomes, which has rental outlets in Hobart, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns, cooperated with the ACCC’s investigation after being made aware of the consumer watchdog's concerns, including taking steps to review and reduce its surcharges.