Widespread dissatisfaction with the level of card surcharging by some merchants, as well as campaigns about the issue by consumer groups, has created an expectation that the introduction of new surcharging standards next week will see a quick end to excessive surcharging.This is not how the scheme operators see things playing out, however.Under the new rules spelled out by the Reserve Bank of Australia, merchants have a right to recover their card acceptance costs through a surcharge. The "reasonable cost of acceptance" includes the merchant service fee charged by the merchant's acquiring bank and some additional costs.Card scheme operators will have the right to change their scheme rules to limit surcharging to a reasonable cost.A spokesman for one of the card schemes said the inclusion of additional costs made the establishment of a reasonable cost of acceptance a complex exercise. The RBA has listed additional costs under five headings: other costs payable to acquirers, including fees for the rental and maintenance of payment card terminals; costs payable to other payment system service providers, such as gateway and switching fees; merchants' own costs related to card acceptance, such as the purchase and maintenance of their own card acceptance infrastructure; fraud costs related to acceptance, such as equipment required to mitigate fraud; and any fixed equipment, systems or development costs not captured under the other headings.Scheme operators will have to negotiate with merchants and their acquiring banks to work out the cost of acquisition for each merchant. They may have to rely on some form of external audit or regulatory process to do this.Scheme operators will have to do this independently of each other because the cost of acceptance is different for different cards. In any case, competition law would prevent them from acting together.It is important to note that the standard "allows" card schemes to limit surcharges to the reasonable cost of acceptance. It does not require them to act.While the scheme operators have been unhappy about excessive surcharging, the reality for them is that they will be negotiating with important customers who are responsible for a lot of card transactions.A representative of one scheme operator said it had held meetings with several of the 10 or so merchants that are regularly criticised for excessive surcharging. Some, but not all, are ready to make changes.Cabcharge issued a statement last year that said: "The costs and challenges of providing and operating the Cabcharge system as a financial service provider to the taxi industry nationally are significant and of a different nature to the examples referred to in the [Reserve Bank's] Variation to Surcharging Report."Some outcomes may be subject to litigation, which will add further complexity and delay to the process.