By and large the merchant establishments do charge this fee. The attitude is to either pay or leave. I pay this fee only if my card offers me to refund this or gives me a decent cash back that takes care of the charges. Otherwise, i prefer to pay in cash and not pay the transaction charges. I agree that this has to be borne by the merchant outlet but then there is little we could do to enforce this. It is something like the do not call registry wherein you register, feel happy, wait for 45 days and in the end still get the nuisance calls.
