The statute
Citation: Va. Code Ann. § 59.1-200 (Virginia Consumer Protection Act), as amended by 2025 S.B. 1212 / H.B. 2515
We have not reproduced operative text here because we could not confirm a clean verbatim quote against the official source. Follow the citation and the source links below.
How much you can charge
No state cap on the surcharge amount; the rule is about price display. No state cap. The binding limits are the card networks: Visa caps a credit card surcharge at the lower of your merchant discount rate or 3% (reduced from 4% effective 15 April 2023) and Mastercard caps it at 4%. Surcharging debit cards is prohibited nationwide.
Disclosure requirements
The practical requirement is a total-price display. If a mandatory fee cannot be avoided by the customer, it belongs in the advertised total rather than added at the end. Keeping a fee-free payment option available is what keeps a card surcharge avoidable.
Sources
- Stinson LLP: Changes to Virginia and Oklahoma surcharge laws
- NFIB Legal Center: Credit Card Surcharge and Cash Discount Laws Guide (2025)
- ArentFox Schiff: Visa reduces its merchant surcharge cap to 3%, effective April 15, 2023
Last verified: 2026-08-25. Confidence: verified against the sources above.
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 Virginia 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.