Update, 25 March: Pallav Narang, Partner at CNK RK, told MediaNama, "The RBI has merely said that it has not provided a separate authorization to the portal to collect such fees. This does not mean that the fee is automatically ultra-vires, the RBI is merely stating the situation as it exists right now. With respect to MDR charges, while the existing circular limits such charges it does not preclude the merchant from levying additional charges and recovering them from the customer." Previously, 18 March: Update: BookMyShow told MediaNama that the handling charges are usually levied only on movie tickets and not on events seen in the Activities tab. Earlier today: The RBI has said that a user need not pay extra fees (usually the service’s handling charges) to book online movie tickets (specifically on BookMyShow), in response to an RTI filed by Vijay Gopal, the founder and president of ‘Forum Against Corruption’, a Secunderabad based body, reports The News Minute. The RTI asked whether the RBI had authorised BookMyShow to “levy or take separate charges on consumers calling it internet usage fee” to which the RBI said that it had not. The report added that BookMyShow's handling charge was a violation of the RBI’s Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) regulations, which state that this charge needs to be paid by the merchants to the banks for internet based transactions. However, in the case of platforms like BookMyShow, this fee was borne by the end user. In this case, BookMyShow, not the…
