SURCHARGE VIOLATION REGISTRY

• US 20150106271A1
• Filed: 12/16/2014
• Published: 04/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Original Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Inventors: Murphy, Matthew D., Weigman, Scott A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,339,528 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/405 Establishing or using transaction specific rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/10 Tax strategies

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for auditing a transaction record are provided. The transaction record may correspond to a credit card transaction. The auditing may include identifying a surcharge violation. The surcharge violation may be an unlawful surcharge. The auditing may identify patterns of double surcharging. Transaction-level auditing may include ensuring that a surcharge is returned upon a product return. A mobile wallet application may allow consumers to access and/or report merchant surcharge compliance activity. Functionality may include surcharge receipt scanning for use in crosschecking authenticity of a consumer report. Additional crosscheck functionality provided by geographic location support. Embodiments may include a registry for merchants that certify their surcharge calculations.

Claims

1. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the code when executed by a processor causes a computer to identify a surcharge violation, the computer readable program code in said article of manufacture comprising:

computer readable program code for causing the computer to receive a surcharge violation notice from a mobile device;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to generate one or more surcharge attributes based on the surcharge violation notice, the one or more surcharge attributes comprising;

a time of a purchase;

a surcharge amount imposed by the merchant on the purchase;

a payment instrument;

a transaction network;

a merchant; and

a surcharge amount advertised by the merchant at the time of the purchase;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to determine a surcharge amount authorized by the transaction network at the time of the purchase;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to calculate a surcharge amount authorized for the payment instrument at the time of the purchase;

computer readable program code for causing the computer to identify a surcharge violation when;

the surcharge amount imposed by the merchant does not correspond to the surcharge amount authorized by the transaction network;

the surcharge amount imposed by the merchant does not correspond to the surcharge amount advertised by the merchant; and

the surcharge amount imposed by the merchant does not correspond to the surcharge amount authorized for the payment instrument; and

computer readable program code for causing the computer, in response to detection of the surcharge violation, to deny a surcharge amount submitted by the merchant after identifying the surcharge violation.

2. The article of claim 1, wherein when the surcharge violation notice includes an image, the article further comprising computer readable program code for causing the computer to:

identify a plurality of segments in the image;

determine the one or more surcharge attributes based on information extracted from the plurality of segments in the image;

identify the surcharge violation by comparing the one or more surcharge attributes to one or more reference attributes; and

register the surcharge violation when the one or more surcharge attributes do not correspond to the one or more reference attributes.

3. The article of claim 1 further comprising computer readable program code for causing the computer to:

compare a location associated with the surcharge violation notice to a merchant location;

identify a surcharge rule in effect during a time associated with the surcharge violation notice; and

register the surcharge violation when;

the location is within a predetermined distance of the merchant location; and

the one or more surcharge attributes do not correspond to the surcharge rule.

4. The article of claim 1 wherein the surcharge violation is:

the surcharge amount imposed by the merchant is in breach of an agreement with one or more transaction participants;

an incentive offered at a point-of-sale, the incentive corresponding to a variable surcharge that is dependent on an issuer associated with the payment instrument;

or

a double surcharge.

5. The article of claim 1 further comprising computer readable program code for causing the computer to transmit the surcharge violation to an online registry.

6. The article of claim 2, further comprising computer readable program code for causing the computer to identify the one or more surcharge attributes based on extracting from the image:

a payment instrument identifier;

a merchant identifier;

the surcharge amount imposed by the merchant; and

a purchase amount.

7. The article of claim 1, further comprising computer readable program code for causing the computer to:

monitor a number of surcharge violations associated with a merchant; and

determine a surcharge violation score based on the number of surcharge violations.

8. The article of claim 7, further comprising computer readable program code for causing the computer to determine the surcharge violation score based on a ratio of:

the number of surcharge violations detected during a pre-determined time period; and

a total number of transactions conducted by the merchant during the pre-determined time period.

9. The article of claim 1, further comprising computer readable program code for causing the computer to adjust a merchant discount based on a number of identified surcharge violations.

10. The article of claim 1 further comprising:

computer readable program code for causing the computer to determine a distance between;

a first location determined by the mobile device; and

a second location derived from the surcharge violation notice; and

computer readable program code for causing the computer to register the surcharge violation when the distance is less than a threshold distance.

11. The article of claim 10 wherein the threshold distance corresponds to a radius extending from the second location.

12. The article of claim 10 wherein:

the first location corresponds to a global positioning system coordinate; and

the second location corresponds to a street address.

13. The article of claim 10 wherein:

the first location is determined by the mobile device at a time an image is captured by the mobile device; and

the surcharge violation notice comprises the image.

14. The article of claim 10 wherein the first location is determined by the mobile device at a time that payment instrument information is transmitted from the mobile device to a point-of-sale terminal of a merchant.

15. The article of claim 1 further comprising computer readable program code for causing the computer to transmit the surcharge violation to a transaction participant.