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Australian Ecommerce Compliance Changes for 2026–27: Guest Checkout, Surcharge Ban & Subscription Rules
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1. No More “Forced” Account Creation
Under the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026, businesses can no longer force customers to create an account for one-time purchases.
- What’s changing: You must provide a clear “Guest Checkout” option. You cannot mandate that a customer stores their data or creates a password just to complete a transaction.
- The Goal: To prevent “data harvesting” and make it easier for consumers to shop without friction.
- The Impact: This depends on your platform:
- Shopify: Most stores will already have “Accounts Optional” enabled, but make sure to review your checkout flow to ensure it doesn’t “nudge” too hard toward account creation.
- WordPress/PrestaShop: Your checkout settings or plugins may need adjustments to ensure the guest experience is seamless and compliant.
- Laravel: Case by case basis depending on individual website requirements.
2. The Ban on Debit & Credit Card Surcharges
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has announced a significant shift in how payment costs are handled, effective 1 October 2026.
What’s changing:
Businesses will be prohibited from applying surcharges on Visa, Mastercard, and eftpos transactions (debit, prepaid, and credit).
The Impact:
You will likely need to absorb these transaction costs into your product pricing or general overhead, rather than passing them on as a line item at checkout. To help offset this, the RBA is also lowering “interchange fees” (the fees banks charge each other), which should eventually lower your overall processing costs.
What stays:
You can generally still apply surcharges for “Buy Now, Pay Later” (like Afterpay) or premium cards like Amex, provided they don’t exceed the actual cost of acceptance.
3. Simple cancellation mechanisms
What’s changing:
Introduce mandatory, simple cancellation mechanisms for all subscriptions and recurring payments so consumers may cancel any digital or recurring service using the same method and with the same ease as sign-up.
Mandate clear and timely renewal reminders for subscription services allowing consumers to receive a standardised notification before being auto-charged for renewal when free trials convert to paid plans or for annual subscriptions.
The Impact:
If you offer subscription services, ensure you have clear and compliant notifications in place.
What stays:
You don’t need to worry about this if you don’t offer any subscription services.
How Concise can help
- A Checkout Audit: We’ll review your site to ensure “Guest Checkout” is prominent and compliant.
- Pricing Strategy: If you currently rely on surcharges to cover your 1.5%–2% merchant fees, we can help you adjust your base pricing automatically or reconfigure payment gateways before the October deadline.
- Privacy Policy Updates: With the new Privacy Act reforms also rolling out, it’s a good time to ensure your data handling disclosures are up to date.
