The Commerce Commission is reminding businesses to ensure holiday surcharges are clearly disclosed and the reasons for the surcharge are accurately described to avoid breaching the Fair Trading Act.

Many businesses apply surcharges to recover additional costs such as higher staff wages on public holidays.

Commissioner, Anna Rawlings, said ultimately a business can charge what it likes for its products or services and consumers will make their own decisions about whether to pay or go elsewhere, however, if a surcharge is applied, it must be clearly disclosed and the reasons must not mislead customers.

“Businesses that do apply a surcharge must ensure people are alerted to this before they make a decision to purchase. This gives consumers the ability to decide whether they are prepared to pay a surcharge or would rather go elsewhere,” Rawlings said.

“The reason for the surcharge must be accurately described and must not mislead consumers. For example a business must not claim their surcharge on Easter Sunday is because it is a public holiday, as the only public holidays over the Easter weekend are Good Friday and Easter Monday.”