Website charging extra fees without prior warning

[All that jazz]

I was wondering what people's thoughts are on the legalities of the Just Eat website for take-away ordering? I didn't have any cash on me so placed an order online for my local take-away and paid by Visa. The food order total was £8.00 and as that is the above the minimum order for free delivery there was no additional charge there, so £8.00 was my total to pay. I filled in the relevant boxes and keyed in my card details - there is no mention on the payment page or preceeding pages of any additional fees. I completed the order by pressing the 'place my order' button and order confirmation arrived by email a few minutes later telling me that my card had been debited for £8.50.

A quick scan of the invoice revealed that I'd been charged a 50p "card fee". I was somewhat surprised to see this as I've not noticed it whilst ordering so went back and rechecked the process but nothing to be found. I contacted their live help and raised the issue with them but they said they're not doing anything wrong because the order amount page magically jumps up by 50p on the payment page despite there being absolutely no mention of what this extra 50p is for.

It is true that the figure does jump up by 50p (I tried a dummy order to test this) and it could be argued that it's my own fault for not noticing, but is this legal? I vaguely recall Ryanair got into hot water some years ago about not displaying their fees and surcharges on their site and so was under the impression (perhaps wrongly) that additional fees/surcharges have to shown in a prominent position on the site.

I'm not going to lose sleep over the card fee but am curious to know what the legal standpoint on it is, if anything?

[DrDeAtH]

No idea, but curries online add 50p for a card transaction , or £1 for PayPal.

It does state this on their website though.

[kowalski655]

I ordering from Just Eat last night (big mistake, it was crap) and Im sure I saw the 50p charge before checkout

[Red Devil]

All that jazz said:

I was wondering what people's thoughts are on the legalities of the Just Eat website for take-away ordering?

The key question is whether the 50p is specifically a card processing fee or dressed up as a general 'administration charge'. Card fees charged to the consumer are quite lawful but are subject to regulation - The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012

The cost to a trader will almost certainly be the merchant fee. Debit cards transactions are a set amount per transaction whereas credit cards are a percentage of the value - http://www.cardswitcher.co.uk/how-it-works/ - so if the trader is charging a flat fee for all credit card transactions it may well be breaching the Regulations on low value orders.

As for the failure on the website to inform the consumer what the 50p charge is for that looks to me like a breach of
The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 Section 6

Of course they may try to rely on this clause in their T&Cs.

Just Eat website said:

5. PRICE AND PAYMENT
5.1. VAT and delivery costs: Prices will be as quoted on the Website. These prices include VAT but may exclude delivery costs (if you opt for delivery instead of collection) and any online payment administration charge imposed by the Restaurant (if you pay for your Order online). These will be added to the total amount due where applicable.

However a 50p charge across the board on ALL online orders would not, imo, be fair because not every restaurant would apply such an admin charge and any that do would not all be identical.

Btw It wasn't just Ryanair that got into trouble.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12430635
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/cards/2013/0...