This Restaurant Really Wants You To Know Why It Can Now Require $10 Minimum For Credit Card Purchases

Thanks to Eric for the pic!

Thanks to Eric for the pic!

Rather than your typical hand-drawn sign letting customers know that they must buy at least $10 worth of stuff in order to use their credit card, this restaurant goes a step further and (sort of) cites the law that gives it the right to require the $10 minimum.

According to the sign, sent in by Consumerist reader Eric, the restaurant is “in compliance with Section 1075 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Protection Act which allows minimum credit card purchases of $10.”

The actual name of the law is the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, but the sign is correct in calling out Section 1075, which itself amends the existing Electronic Fund Transfer Act by inserting two new sections.

The relevant new section of the EFTA is “§ 920. Reasonable Fees and Rules for Payment Card Transactions,” which states, among many other things that:

“A payment card network shall not, directly or through any agent, processor, or licensed member of the network, by contract, requirement, condition, penalty, or otherwise, inhibit the ability —

(i) of any person to set a minimum dollar value for the acceptance by that person of credit cards, to the extent that–

(I) such minimum dollar value does not differentiate between issuers or between payment card networks; and

(II) such minimum dollar value does not exceed $10.00”

But that would probably all be a little much to fit on one sign, and could cause a logjam at the door or window as diners read through the entire thing.

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