Credit-Card Surcharge Bans Questioned at U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. Supreme Court justices grappled with a New York law that says merchants can’t impose surcharges on credit-card purchases, hearing arguments in a free-speech clash with implications for billions of dollars of transactions.

Merchants are trying to topple — or at least scale back — surcharge bans in New York and nine other states, saying the laws strip them of an important tool for telling their customers about the cost of credit-card transactions. Retailers say they pay $50 billion in “swipe fees” each year to card companies.

The justices spent much of the hour-long session trying to understand exactly what the New ...