Hi. 🙂
I am going to stick my neck out here and say, Yes, the merchant can charge you a fee for using PayPal. It is my understanding that if a merchant agrees to allow customers to use PayPal, the merchant also agrees to pay PayPal for the service. PayPal takes a percentage of the sale. If the merchant is going to lose money by allowing you (or any customer) to use PayPal, it seems to me, the merchant has the right to recoup its cost(s)... in the way of a fee charged directly to the customer.
It is, in a sense, like a gas station reducing its price per gallon by three cents if the customer pays cash. The station can do this because it saves the station bank and credit card fees. It could have, instead, charged three cents MORE per gallon to customers using credit cards. But, of course, there is less controversy/argument by charging less for cash.
I looked over PayPal's "Important Discloses" (found here: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/bmlterms) and found these statements that may apply to your question. However, I read nothing that stated merchants could not charge customers to use PayPal.
In the Terms section, "Cost" is defined as :
The amount of any Cash Advances you obtain using PayPal Credit or the total price of any item(s) you purchase from a Merchant using PayPal Credit, plus any fee or charge you agree to pay the Merchant or PayPal, Inc., the cost of shipping and taxes, less any applicable discount or credit offered by the Merchant.
Note -- You don't have to agree to pay the merchant the fee its charging for allowing you to pay with PayPal. However, of course, you won't get the goods without paying for it with another method.
In the Credit Line & Other Agreements section, it says
We May Charge your Account for Purchases and Cash Advances: You understand that the amount that we actually pay to the Merchant for any Purchase or that PayPal, Inc. pays to any recipient of a Cash Advance may be less than the Cost of the Purchase or Cash Advance, because: (i) the Merchant may agree that we or a third party may retain a portion of the Cost in order to participate in PayPal Credit...".
Note -- That does not prohibit the merchant from passing the cost of using PayPal on to the customer.
So, the bottom line, in my opinion -- which does not make it right (the correct answer) -- is that the merchant can pass the cost of using PayPal on to customers by charging a fee for doing so.
If you want the merchadise bad enough, you pay for it. 😉
P.S. I should add that if a merchant agrees to use "Classic PayPal" (not "PayPal Credit"), it has (in my opinion) the right to recoup any fees that Classic PP might charge it. So, whether "Classic" or "Credit" PP, the rules above apply -- in my opinion. 🙂
