Hoodline: Honolulu Shops Brace For Swipe-Fee Shakeup As Visa, Mastercard Pitch $38B Deal
Retail trade groups didn’t mince words. The National Retail Federation labeled the draft agreement “all window dressing and no substance” and urged Judge Margo Brodie to reject it, arguing a tiny basis‑point trim won’t fix systems that let banks centrally set fees, per an NRF press release. The Merchants Payments Coalition and small‑business advocates also warned that because most consumer cards are rewards cards, merchants may have limited ability to steer customers toward cheaper options.
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Punchbowl News: Senate Ag Moves on Crypto, Plus Credit Card Wars
"The card industry is trying again to get legal protection while offering little in return to merchants," said Jennifer Hatcher, who serves on the executive committee of the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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PYMNTS: SMBs Stand to Gain From Visa and Mastercard ‘Swipe Fees’ Settlement
The Merchants Payments Coalition called fee reduction “minuscule,” and said Visa and Mastercard would be free to raise fees without restrictions after temporary cuts expired. It also said merchants had “no choice” but to accept rewards cards, which make up 85% of all cards issued, and banks could still move cards into different categories, essentially requiring merchants to accept all cards.
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Convenience Store News: Retailers Oppose Reported Visa & Mastercard Settlement
According to the MPC, the newly proposed settlement fails to overcome Judge Brodie's reasons for rejecting the last settlement and should therefore also be rejected. "Achieving a settlement that works to reverse current illegal and anticompetitive practices of Visa and Mastercard should be straightforward but this attempt fails once again and should be rejected," MPC Executive Committee member and FMI — the Food Industry Association Chief Public Policy Officer Jennifer Hatcher said. "The courts have emphatically rejected these settlements twice but now the card industry is trying again to get legal protection while offering little in return to merchants. Under this proposal, Visa and Mastercard would get to keep fixing swipe fees while Main Street businesses and customers would pay the price. "It is now clearer than ever that Congress needs to pass the Credit Card Competition Act to fix our nation's broken payments system," Hatcher continued. "Small businesses and American consumers can't afford to keep paying cartel fees on cards that drive up prices by billions of dollars a year."
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Harlem World: Visa And Mastercard Settle Swipe Fee Lawsuit
The Merchants Payments Coalition criticized the fee reduction as “minimal,” noting that Visa and Mastercard could still raise fees without limitation once temporary reductions expire. The group also argued that merchants have “no choice” but to accept rewards cards, which constitute 85% of all issued cards.
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CSP Daily News: Retailers oppose latest interchange fee settlement offer
“Achieving a settlement that works to reverse current illegal and anticompetitive practices of Visa and Mastercard should be straightforward, but this attempt fails once again and should be rejected,” said Jennifer Hatcher, chief public policy officer at FMI—the Food Industry Association and a member of the executive committee at the Merchant Payments Coalition.
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Convenience Store News: Merchants Group Cites Big Bank Profits in Push for Swipe Fee Reform
Credit and debit card swipe fees boosting big bank profits underscore the need for congressional action on merchant processing costs, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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Loss Prevention Magazine: Cash Visibility Standards: Powering Light in the Darkness
Over twenty US states have introduced legislation and dozens of American cities have enacted “cashless bans.” Combined with record swipe fees reported by the Merchants Payments Coalition for 2025, these factors help explain why cash in circulation has reached a record $2.4 trillion.
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The Street: T-Mobile restricts a beloved discount, angering customers
According to recent data from the Merchants Payments Coalition, swipe fees for Visa and Mastercard credit cards totaled $111.2 billion in 2024, up from $100 billion the year before. This is an increase of more than 10% in one year alone. “With no competition to hold them in check, price-fixed swipe fees rise every year and shot up again last year,” said Christine Pollack, Merchants Payments Coalition executive committee member, in a press release.
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MoneyWise: Some premium credit cards have hiked annual fees by 45% — make sure ‘fee creep’ isn’t quietly canceling your rewards
“Swipe fees,” the fees charged by card networks and big banks to process credit and debit transactions, totaled $187 billion in 2024, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition, an advocacy group representing retailers pushing for lower fees. “Because the fees are a percentage of the purchase amount, they automatically go up every time prices go up, even without an increase in rates,” says the coalition.
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