Super-complaint: credit and debit surcharges

Introduction and summary

Which? is an independent, not-for-profit consumer organisation with around 700,000 members and is the largest consumer organisation in Europe. Which? is independent of government and industry, and is funded through the sale of Which? consumer magazines, subscription services and books.

Which?, as the Consumers Association, is a designated body under section 11 of theEnterprise Act 2002, able to make ‘super-complaints’ that ‘any feature, or combination of features, of a market in the United Kingdom for goods or services is or appears to be significantly harming the interest of consumers.’ This document and its annexes form a super-complaint, submitted to the OFT on 30 March 2011. 

Which? announced on 11 February its intention to submit a super-complaint to end ‘rip-off’ charge on credit and debit card payments.1 Since the launch Which? has received wide-spread support for this complaint, including over: 40,000 individual pledges of support, 1,000 responses from our Which? Connect email, 800 new friends on Facebook, 200 comments on Which? Conversation and 250 new followers on Twitter.