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ProhibitedLast verified: 2026-08-25

Is credit card surcharging legal in Maine?

No. Maine prohibits merchants from adding a credit card surcharge at checkout. Maine prohibits surcharging, and its ban is broader than most: 9-A M.R.S. § 8-509 is titled a credit card and debit card surcharge prohibition and covers both card types. The prohibition binds sellers; governmental entities are excepted and may surcharge for taxes, fines, utility and licence payments if they disclose the fee before payment, tell the payer that cash or cheque avoids it, and keep it within the cost they actually incur. Cash discounts are not treated as surcharges and remain permitted.

The statute

Citation: Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 9-A, § 8-509

“A seller in a sales transaction may not impose a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card or debit card”

Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 9-A, § 8-509

How much you can charge

No cap, because sellers may not surcharge at all. The government-entity exception is limited to the card costs the entity actually incurs or that a third-party processor assesses.

Disclosure requirements

For merchants the compliant pattern is a cash discount rather than a card fee. Maine's statute defines a surcharge as any means of increasing the regular price to a cardholder that is not imposed on a customer paying by cash or cheque, so a differently labelled card fee is still a surcharge.

Not legal advice

This page is a research summary for merchants, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by reading it. Surcharge rules change, they interact with card-network rules and federal law, and they can turn on facts specific to your business. Consult licensed counsel in Maine before you implement or change a surcharge.

Putting this into practice on Shopify

Rules like these only help if your checkout can actually enforce them, including on Shop Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Shopify surcharge guideSee FeeLayer