Book My Show’s ‘internet handling fee’ might not be legal according to a RTI query

When you think of seeing a movie in a theatre, the first thing you do is look at Book My Show through your website and computer. Instead of visiting the cinema to book the tickets yourself, Book My Show is our go-to app to book tickets more movies, plays and even when our favourite stand-up comic comes to visit.

But have you ever wondered what is that extra charge called ‘internet handling fee’ that you pay against each transaction?

According to an RTI query with Reserve Bank of India (RBI), booking platforms like BMS don’t have a right to levy handling fees on customers and that they are in violation of the RBI’s Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) regulations. This fee is paid by the merchant to the bank for accepting customer payments via debit or credit cards.

What portals like Book My Show are doing is giving all the theatres featured on their portal an option to levy this fee on the customer in the form of internet handling fees, when in fact, it’s their job to pay the fees for each debit/credit card transaction.

Whether or not Book My Show will stop levying this fees is another question, this is just an inquiry into the Right to Information query.