AI-generated EFTPOS image falsely depicts Sydney cafe workaround
The satirical 50-cent terminal-box post spread as Australia’s card-surcharge ban began on Oct. 1
A viral image claiming that a Sydney cafe charged customers 50 cents to unlock its EFTPOS terminal was generated by artificial intelligence, not evidence of a business evading Australia’s new ban on card surcharges.
The image circulated on Facebook, Instagram and X on Oct. 1, the day the ban took effect. AFP’s fact check found it originated with a Facebook page that regularly posts satire and humorous material.
It showed a card machine enclosed in a transparent plastic box beside a handwritten sign reading: “No card surcharge. 50c to open cover.” Posts described it as a Sydney cafe charging 50 cents to use EFTPOS, prompting both criticism and praise online.
OpenAI’s verification platform detected a SynthID watermark associated with OpenAI tools. OpenAI says its tool checks uploaded media for provenance signals including SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata. A positive signal indicates content likely originated with its tools, though it cannot establish how the material was later used or modified.
There was also an internal inconsistency in the image: the terminal asked for payment even while its screen displayed a charge of $0.00. SynthID is an invisible watermark embedded in generated media and is designed to persist through alterations such as cropping, filtering and lossy compression.
Australia removed card-payment surcharges on Oct. 1 for eftpos, Mastercard and Visa payments. The Reserve Bank of Australia said the rule bars an added charge because a customer chooses to pay by card, while allowing businesses to incorporate card-acceptance costs into their overall prices.
The ban does not cover ordinary weekend or public-holiday surcharges, booking fees or service fees. Nor does it eliminate charges that payment-service providers levy on merchants for terminal rental, transaction processing or other payment-related services.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has said businesses must not relabel a card-payment surcharge as another fee or charge, warning that doing so may amount to misleading conduct. It permits businesses to recover acceptance costs through overall prices, provided displayed prices state the total amount payable.
The government said the reforms would stop consumers paying about A$1.6 billion in card surcharges each year and save businesses A$910 million annually. PayPal’s equivalent no-surcharge change took effect on Oct. 5, after American Express and UnionPay made their changes on Oct. 1.