The Code of Conduct for the
Credit and Debit Card Industry seeks to promote transparency and
fairness for merchants and consumers.
The Code of Conduct for the Credit and Debit Card Industry which
came into effect on August 16, 2010 aims to
increase transparency and fairness for both merchants and consumers
who use credit and debit cards. Applicable to credit and debit
systems and their participants, payment networks that choose to
adopt the Code will be subject to monitoring by the Financial
Consumer Agency of Canada to ensure compliance.
The policies put into place by the Code will give merchants more
choice as well as pricing flexibility. For example, payment
networks must provide extended notification when they increase or
introduce new fees. Merchants will also be able to cancel their
contracts without penalty if they disagree with the fee increases.
Some policies will directly benefit consumers such as requiring
payment card networks to separate credit and
