Eight US states are introducing or drafting state legislation that will prevent merchants from charging the consumer surcharges on credit card purchases, according to the US Credit Union National Association (CUNA).

The association revealed that Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New Jersey and Rhode Island have all already introduced bills that ban the charges, whilst Pennsylvania and West Virginia say they are drafting legislation, and Vermont has shown an interest in following suit.

The surcharge allows merchants to place a up to a 4% fee on credit card transactions and is a result of the largest anti-trust settlement in US history. In 2005, a group of merchants took MasterCard, Visa and nine other major banks to court accusing them of conspiring to fix the fees merchants pay to accept credit card purchases.

If legislation passes in all these states, they will join the ten that have already banned the fees. These include the country’s four most populated states: California, Texas, New York and Florida.

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