“A group of California small businesses won a victory Wednesday when a three-judge panel of a federal appellate court upheld their challenge to California’s ban on credit card surcharges, but a key aspect of the ruling applies only to the merchants who sued the state. Still, the ruling represents at least a partial win by merchant groups seeking to overturn state bans on surcharges, especially when such laws attempt to regulate how merchants communicate different prices for cardholders and cash users. A case involving New York’s surcharge ban went to the Supreme Court and is now back for further adjudication in lower courts.”