Founder, ZeroPoint
Who I am
I'm Derrick Hess, founder of ZeroPoint, a Louisiana payments firm. I hold the Certified Payments Professional (CPP) credential from the Electronic Transactions Association, the payments industry's professional certification, and I've spent two decades in Louisiana merchant services - reading processing statements, setting up and untangling surcharge and cash-discount programs, and helping local businesses understand what they're actually being charged when a customer swipes a card.
When Senate Bill 254 was moving through the Legislature, that background put me in an unusual spot: the law regulates the exact mechanics I work with every day. I was quoted in State Affairs' statehouse coverage of the bill's signing, and I've been tracking the law - now Act 751, codified at La. R.S. 51:3081 - since before it had that name. In August 2026 the Louisiana Retailers Association, whose members are the retail businesses the statute names, ran my briefing on the law as a guest column in its member newsletter.
Why this site exists
Most Louisiana business owners who surcharge debit cards don't know they're doing it. A processor set up their terminal years ago, the fee is buried in the receipt footer, and the sign at the register says "credit card fee." Under Act 751 that setup is now a legal problem, and the business - not the processor - is the one liable.
The official sources are the enrolled bill and the statute, and you should read the law itself. But statute text doesn't tell a shop owner whether their specific terminal configuration is the banned kind. That translation - from "what the law says" to "what your card machine is actually doing" - is what I do for a living, so I built this site to do it in public, for free, in plain English.
Everything here reflects my hands-on reading of the law as a payments practitioner, checked against the enrolled bill text. I'm not a lawyer, and nothing on this site is legal advice. For advice on your specific situation, consult a licensed Louisiana attorney.
What ZeroPoint gets out of it
Fair question. ZeroPoint is a payments firm; compliant payment setups are our business. The free resources on this site - the Risk Scorecard, the guides, the written-notice letter generator for customers - are free with no obligation, and the free compliance check is the one place where, if your setup turns out to be broken, we may offer to fix it as a paying engagement. That connection is disclosed on every form. The information itself stays free either way.
Contact
Questions about the site, a correction, or a press inquiry: derrick@act751.com. Business inquiries for ZeroPoint: hello@zeropointus.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn.