CNN: Federal judge rejects $30 billion settlement between Visa, Mastercard and retailers
The Merchants Payments Coalition — whose members include supermarkets, retail chains, restaurants, drug stores, convenience stores, gas stations and online merchants focused on payments system reform — blasted the preliminary settlement as being insufficient. Christopher Jones, an executive committee member of the Merchants Payments Coalition, said it would have enabled the credit card companies to “keep price-fixing swipe fees and blocking competition.” “Thankfully, the judge made the right call in recognizing what a bad deal this would have been for Main Street merchants and their customers,” Jones said in a statement on Tuesday.
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Reuters: Visa, Mastercard $30 billion swipe fee settlement rejected by US judge
"It didn't address the problem of Visa, Mastercard and banks forming a cartel to issue credit cards and set fees, such that merchants have to accept all cards or none," Doug Kantor, general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member), said in an interview. "The next step, presumably, is a trial," he added.
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The Hill: Judge rejects $30B 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. 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,” said Christopher Jones, chief government relations officer and counsel at the National Grocers Association and a member of the executive committee of the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC).
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Merchants Welcome Order Officially Rejecting Flawed Visa/Mastercard Swipe Fee Settlement
MPC welcomed an order issued by a federal judge rejecting a proposed class-action settlement over Visa and Mastercard credit card “swipe” fees.
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Bloomberg: Visa, Mastercard $30 Billion Swipe-Fee Deal Blocked by Judge
“We appreciate that there was recognition of the fatal flaws that would have made the settlement a bad deal for Main Street rather than a correction of credit-card industry violations of the antitrust laws,” Christopher Jones, an executive committee member of the Merchants Payments Coalition, said in a statement after the hearing.
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NACS Daily: Merchants Urge Senate to Reject Bill Delaying Debit Swipe Fee Action
“Every day of further delay in the Fed’s consideration of its proposed rule means another day in which large card-issuing banks are deducting significantly more money out of debit transactions than is reasonable, proportional or allowable under the law Congress passed,” the groups said in a letter. “That is why financial industry trade associations are seeking to delay the Fed as long as possible from taking action to update its 2011 regulation—delay preserves what for them is an enormously lucrative status quo.” The letter was signed by 218 groups ranging from consumer advocates to retail trade associations and sent to members of the Senate. Signers included the Merchants Payments Coalition and other national organizations along with state groups from every state and Puerto Rico.
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Payments Dive: Pennsylvania may ban interchange fees on sales tax
“There’s a recognition that there’s a very fundamental unfairness going on here: The actual tax dollars that merchants are collecting on behalf of the state are being taken away by the credit card companies,” NACS General Counsel (and MPC Executive Committee member) Doug Kantor said earlier this month regarding the Illinois law. He noted Texas and Florida are among other states considering such legislation.
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Progressive Grocer: Retailers Support Decision to Reject Swipe Settlement Deal
“Visa and Mastercard wanted a settlement that would let them keep price-fixing swipe fees and blocking competition,” said MPC Executive Committee member and National Grocers Association Chief Government Relations Officer and Counsel Christopher Jones. “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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Axios: Visa-Mastercard credit card fees settlement rejected
The Merchants Payment Coalition assailed the deal reached in March. "We're glad to see the judge recognize how bad this settlement was," Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores and member of the MPC, tells Axios in an interview. "Visa and Mastercard fix prices and tie all the banks together into a giant pricing cartel — and the settlement didn't correct any of those problems."
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Epoch Times: Federal Judge Blocks Massive Swipe Fee Settlement Between Visa and Mastercard
The earlier filing drew praise from the Merchants Payments Coalition and similar groups. “This proposed settlement would have done nothing to address the problem of how Visa and Mastercard centrally price fix swipe fees,” Christopher Jones, (a member of the MPC Executive Committee), said in a statement in mid-June. “Instead, the settlement would have locked in cartel pricing.”
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