Merchant Trade Groups Press Legislative Action Against Visa, Mastercard
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC), another group of retailers, restaurants, gas stations and other merchants focused on the credit card fee issue, took the argument a step further, calling on Visa and Mastercard to lower their fees.
READ MORE +Payments Source: EMV deadline nears for gas stations, but many won't make it
The card brands are taking their last major step in the U.S. EMV migration by enforcing a liability shift at fuel stations.
READ MORE +Credit Card Swipe Fee Increases Temporarily Delayed
The Merchants Payments Coalition welcomed Visa and Mastercard’s announcement that nearly $1.2 billion in credit card swipe fee increases will be postponed for a year, but said existing fees are already too high and need to be addressed by Congress.
READ MORE +Visa, Mastercard to Delay Merchant Fee Hikes Another Year
Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are postponing plans to boost the fees U.S. merchants pay when consumers use credit cards online, pushing back the changes another year to April 2022 because of the pandemic.
READ MORE +Mastercard, Visa to postpone some fee increases next month
Durbin and Rep. Peter Welch, D-VT, sent a letter to the companies this month urging them not to increase fees.
READ MORE +Card brands postpone fee hike, but merchants want interchange reform
The major card networks have postponed a planned interchange fee hike yet again in light of the reality of an ongoing pandemic, pleas from merchant groups and pressure from Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
READ MORE +Industry ‘Pleased’ by Legislators' Request to Cancel Swipe Fee Hike
The grocery industry has described itself as “extremely pleased” by a letter sent by federal lawmakers encouraging major credit card companies to cancel planned increases in interchange fees, also known as “swipe fees,” which food retailers maintain would be detrimental to businesses and consumer
READ MORE +Interchange to rise in April, but card brands offer an olive branch
Last year the major card networks decided, amid the pandemic, to hold off on adjusting interchange fees until April of 2021. This would be the most substantial change to the interchange rate structure in a decade, and the card networks have not signaled plans to delay it further.
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