WIBC-FM: Visa and Mastercard Cartel $30 Billion Swipe Fee Settlement Rejected By US Judge
MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor: "The very definition of a cartel is they put all these guys together and say you have to take every single person’s card like it’s from the same company or none of them. And putting competitors together. That is the very definition of cartel. And obviously I use it because. It carries other overtones for people and they understand, ohh, wait, cartels are bad, we don’t like those. There’s a problem. It gets people to notice what Visa and MasterCard like to keep hidden, which is that they have these gigantic fees."
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Bloomberg Law: Judges’ Antitrust Scrutiny Grows With Nixed Visa-Mastercard Deal
Brodie’s decision received praise from the Merchants Payments Coalition, a Washington, D.C.,-based group of retailers advocating for competition in the payments market that believes the deal would have been bad for small business merchants and their customers. “We’re glad to see that the judge recognized the inadequacies of the settlement,” said Doug Kantor, member of the coalition’s executive committee. “There is really no relief from the central claims of the case. It didn’t change the central tenets of how Visa and Mastercard do business.”
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Payments Journal: Rejection of the Swipe Fee Settlement Sets up New Battles for Merchants
These changes would have saved merchants $30 billion over the next five years, according to a statement issued by their lawyers. For context, Visa and Mastercard’s swipe fees hit a record high of $100.77 billion in 2023, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition. However, merchant groups anticipate a more favorable outcome through a trial. “Going to trial is what we expect and what we absolutely want,” Doug Kantor, General Counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member), told Digital Transactions.
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United Press International: Federal judge rejects Visa, Mastercard swipe fee settlement
"Thankfully, the judge made the right call in recognizing what a bad deal this would have been for Main Street merchants and their customers," Christopher Jones chief government relations officer for the National Grocers Association (and MPC Executive Committee member), told The Hill. "It's extremely unusual for a judge to reject a settlement at the preliminary stage, so this shows how far Visa and Mastercard's proposal missed the mark."
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Convenience Store News: Retailers React as Judge Rejects Swipe Fee Settlement
"Visa and Mastercard wanted a settlement that would let them keep price-fixing swipe fees and blocking competition," MPC Executive Committee member and NGA Chief Government Relations Officer and Counsel Christopher Jones said. "Thankfully, the judge made the right call in recognizing what a bad deal this would have been for Main Street merchants and their customers. It's extremely unusual for a judge to reject a settlement at the preliminary stage, so this shows how far Visa and Mastercard's proposal missed the mark."
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Quartz: Visa and Mastercard's 20 year-long battle over swipe fees will rage on
(National Grocers Association) Chief Government Relations Officer and (MPC Executive Committee member) Christopher Jones said in a statement “the judge made the right call in recognizing what a bad deal this would have been for Main Street merchants and their customers.”
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Digital Transactions: Merchants Look Forward to Their Day in Court After Judge Brodie Rejects the Interchange Settlement
“Going to trial is what we expect and what we absolutely want,” says Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member. “One of the goals of the litigation is to show the bad acts of the card industry when it comes to card pricing [for merchants].”
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Morning Brew: Credit card swipe fee suit will continue, nearly 2 decades since it started
Last year, banks and other financial groups that issue Visa and Mastercard credit cards raked in $172 billion in swipe fees, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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Modern Retail: Why the ‘swipe fee’ battle between retailers & banks is far from over
“It’s nice to have some momentum,” said Doug Kantor, a member of the Merchants Payment Coalitions, which opposed the settlement. “It definitely bolsters our case, and it shows the credit card industry does not understand the extent of the problem with their business model.”
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The Business Journals: Visa, Mastercard 'swipe' fee settlement dealt a big blow
“Visa and Mastercard wanted a settlement that would let them keep price-fixing swipe fees and blocking competition,” said Christopher Jones, an executive committee member at the Merchants Payment Coalition, in a statement. “Thankfully, the judge made the right call in recognizing what a bad deal this would have been for Main Street merchants and their customers. It’s extremely unusual for a judge to reject a settlement at the preliminary stage, so this shows how far Visa and Mastercard’s proposal missed the mark.”
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