“For all operations carried out in white, taxes must be paid. Why don’t they charge you a surcharge in large businesses with payment cards in one payment or with debit? Because they pay the taxes and they are not blacking. It is because it is already contemplated in the price that they are going to pay taxes. While the smallest businesses ‘pull’ to make operations in cash to avoid having to pay taxes. When one wants to pay with the card and since they have to pay taxes, they recharge you. But they don’t charge you for what the bank charges them, they charge you because they want to make you pay the taxes,” the head of the agency, Fernán Poidonami, told Diario Uno.
The official warned that merchants “charge you what they want, from 0% to 1% is already illegal.”
Indeed, the practice is a violation of Law No. 25,065 on Credit, Purchase or Debit Cards, which establishes in article 37, subparagraph C, that the provider (the merchant) “should not make price differences between operations at Cash and card.
Consulted regarding the number of complaints received at the Directorate, he maintained that “it is not very common for it to be reported, because consumers do not even know that it is an infraction. But it is a topic that would be good to put on the table as of the imminent start-up of Wallet Entre Ríos. In that case, people have to know that they have to respect the cash price”.
The official reaffirmed that since it is a practice that violates the Card Law, it can be incorporated into the Consumer Defense Law “as an infraction where an abuse is incurred.”
The possibility of detecting this maneuver is directly associated with the complaints that are sent to the General Directorate of Consumer Defense, clarified the head of the division. “Imagine the number of businesses in the province and the operations that take place daily. What people have to do is report it or not pay them. What happens is that they can do it because those things are unknown. And since the client is used to being charged with the card, but it is for when they are going to pay in installments. But when you want to make a payment with a credit or debit card or with any application, you do not have to make a surcharge, ”he explained.
At this point, Poidomani explained that the merchant is committing an offense regardless of the payment system (Posnet, Mercado Pago, among others) that is being used to carry out the operations.
How to make the complaint
Consumers who are affected by this situation may file a complaint digitally or in person at the offices of the Directorate, located at Córdoba 231 in the city of Paraná, from Monday to Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. To carry out the procedure, it is necessary to bring the ID or passport, telephone number or contact email address to receive the response to the claim, name and location of the provider of the good or service for which the claim is made. The basic information of the purchase of the service or product (province where it was purchased and where it was used, that is, the supplier’s data).
