"Merchants pay a small fee on completed purchases, but the service is free for users, doesn’t affect their prices, and doesn’t influence ChatGPT’s product results. Instant Checkout items are not preferred in product results."
The incentives are very strong to prefer instant checkout items.
Wouldn't it be incredibly easy for merchants to expose slightly higher prices over the "agentic commerce protocol", so that users do end up paying this fee?
It would be, but at least in the EU this is not legal - this is also why you cannot pass the payment processor fee to the customer (which this kind of is)
The incentives are very strong to prefer instant checkout items.