Am I Liable for Undercharged Store Bag Fees?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

Am I responsible for correcting undercharges for store bags if staff regularly overlook them?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

You are not responsible if the cashier chooses not to charge you the fee for the bags. The cashier, as an employee of the store, is, legally speaking, an agent acting on behalf of the owner. By this agency, he or she has a certain level of discretion. [Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

If a small fee is omitted, you can assume this is part of the agency s/he has as employee. If, however, it is a large sum that an employee would not customarily be able to exercise such discretion, this is cause for concern, and permission should be sought from management. [Ibid.]

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he went on to study at Darul Uloom Seminary in New York and completed his studies at Darul Mustafa in Tarim, Yemen.

There, he completed the memorization of the Quran and his study of Islamic Sciences. Throughout his years of study, he was blessed to learn from many great scholars: Habib Umar bin Hafiz, Habib Kazhim al-Saqqaf, Shaykh ‘Umar bin Husayn al-Khatib, and others.

Upon returning, he joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.