If most retailers start charging customers fees for using BNPL then there is less incentive to switch from credit cards to BNPL. In this situation I feel the only people who would use this sector are the ones who are rejected from using credit cards (sub-prime borrowers). Not a great situation for APT as I'd expect slower uptake as well as increased delinquencies.
HOWEVER... why would retailers possibly want to pass on this cost? Let me post just one reason why ret ailers are using a service like Afterpay:
If you are a retailer and your sales are almost doubling due to customers using Afterpay, you wouldn't want to do anything to disincentivise your customers from using it. Imagine you make $1000 a day, and a recruiter approaches you and says he can get you a job that pays $1940 a day, but it'll cost you $50 a day.
To sum it up, if retailers passed on the costs it would undermine BNPL and be very bad news to APT, but it's unlikely this will happen IMO.
APT Price at posting:
$31.60 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held