Simon Bunce, Abta’s director of legal affairs, told the Hays Independence Group Annual Conference in Marbella that the EU’s intention to reduce bank transaction fees with the upcoming card surcharge ban “has not happened”.

“The original intention was this would bring those [bank] fees down, and it hasn’t worked.

“We have had quite a good response from the treasury on this – they’re quite keen to see what the impact is on business of these changes to interchange fees, especially the impact on small business.

“This is having a disproportionate impact on small business. If we can break down the costs that are in the process we can bring down the burden on you.”

Bunce added that there were incentives that sellers may be able to use in order to reduce the financial burden of the card surcharge ban on them, but warned this could land them in hot water if what’s permitted is not clarified.

“Although you clearly can’t charge someone to try and prevent them from using a card or recoup your costs… we are talking to the treasury about the parameters of incentivisation and really getting this clarified,” he said. “We want to be able to come out with clear guidance on this before [members] trip into doing something too close to a banned practice.”

Bunce said Abta has been hearing from its members about suggested incentives.

“If you have a big enough booking can you arrange for the passenger to have access to the airport lounge as an incentive for them to pay you in some other way? The Treasury seems to be comfortable with that – it’s not a straight cash incentive and that’s not unlawful under the rules.

“The other question has been vouchers for future holidays. The Treasury seems to be comfortable with that sort of approach too, so that’s something we will be thinking about.

“We will be coming out with more definitive guidance on this once we’ve had further clarification from the Treasury.”