Starting Thursday, shoppers may find themselves paying a little more when using their credit card at the store or online.

Businesses in Ontario are now allowed to add credit card fees on each Visa and Mastercard purchase at a cap of 2.4 per cent.

The move comes after a class-action lawsuit involving credit card giants Visa and Mastercard.

“I’m not too happy about it,” said Linda Gardner, an avid credit card user.

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), merchants pay back anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 per cent transaction fees on each credit card sale, and flipping a surcharge to customers will help elevate those costs.

“It’s an additional cost that we are already incurring,” Solé Restaurant and Wine Bar owner John Cerny told CTV News.

The CFIB said some businesses had included hidden credit card fees in the past, but the latest changes will offer full transparency between the business and consumer.

Businesses are required to post signage notifying shoppers of the added fees. Customers need to be notified before their purchase in-store or online and given the total cost of the fee on the receipt.

Merchants can choose to adopt fees for specific credit cards and leave them off of others.

A province-wide survey from the CFIB shows 17 per cent of businesses will not charge credit card users the additional fees, while 19 per cent say they will. A total of 24 per cent of respondents say they will only bring in added surcharges if their competitors and suppliers do the same. The CFIB says 40 per cent of businesses are undecided.

“Each small business will look at their own situation to figure out whether or not it’s right for them,” said Julie Kwiecinski, CFIB Director of Provincial Affairs.

Kwiecinski says several factors impact a business's decision to adopt the customer fees, including competition and customer retention. She adds that many businesses will take a “wait and see attitude” and won’t decide until after the holiday shopping season.

Cerny says Solé Restaurant and Wine Bar will continue to gauge the situation before moving ahead.

“We’re going to see what the industry does as well as try and get some feedback from our guests and see how they feel about it,” Cerny said. “Just to pass that along to our customers, it’s a challenging thing to do.”