House Bill 13 would regulate surcharges or fees that merchants in North Carolina may add when customers pay by credit card or charge card. The bill caps any such charge at 2% of the total transaction and requires clear disclosure of the fee at the point of entry and point of sale for in-person purchases, on the homepage and relevant webpage for online transactions, and verbally for phone transactions. It also allows merchants to offer discounts for cash, check, or other non-card payment methods, so long as the discount is offered and disclosed to all customers.
The bill also prohibits a merchant from charging a card-payment fee when the merchant accepts only credit or charge cards as payment. Enforcement would be handled by the Secretary of Commerce, who could assess civil penalties of up to $500 per violation. A first-time violator could avoid the penalty by coming into compliance within 30 days, compensating affected consumers, and remaining in compliance. Civil penalties collected under the bill would go to the Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund.
In addition to the card-payment provisions, HB13 increases the fee for filing articles of incorporation under the North Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act from $60 to $65. That change would amend the fee schedule in G.S. 55A-1-22 and affect nonprofit incorporators filing with the Secretary of State.
The bill’s effective date is split: the nonprofit filing fee increase would take effect when the act becomes law, while the credit-card surcharge restrictions would apply to payments made on or after January 1, 2026. Based on the available record, the bill appears to have moved through multiple committee substitutes and was still being referred to the House Rules, Calendar, and Operations Committee as of September 23, 2025.
There is no recorded vote history or committee transcript in the provided materials, so the overall sentiment cannot be measured from debate or roll-call data. The bill’s structure suggests a consumer-protection focus on transparency and limits on card-payment surcharges, alongside a modest fee increase for nonprofit filings. Potential contention would likely center on the 2% cap, the prohibition on surcharges where only cards are accepted, and the added compliance and disclosure requirements for merchants.
HB13 would add a new consumer-protection provision to Chapter 66 limiting merchant charges for credit-card and charge-card payments, authorize enforcement by the Secretary of Commerce, and create civil penalties for violations. It would also amend G.S. 55A-1-22 to raise the Secretary of State filing fee for nonprofit articles of incorporation from $60 to $65, affecting nonprofit incorporators and the state fee schedule.
No committee transcripts or votes were provided, so there is no direct evidence of support or opposition from the legislative record included here. The bill’s text indicates a generally regulatory and consumer-disclosure approach, with a likely policy goal of limiting excessive card-payment surcharges while preserving merchant discounting options. The multiple favorable committee substitutes suggest the bill remained active and was being refined rather than rejected.
The most likely points of contention are the 2% cap on card-payment charges, the ban on charging a fee when only card payments are accepted, and the requirement for prominent disclosures across in-person, online, and phone sales channels. Merchants may view these provisions as burdensome or restrictive, while consumer advocates would likely support them as transparency measures. The separate increase in nonprofit incorporation filing fees is a smaller issue but could still draw concern from nonprofit organizers and incorporation filers.