Convenience Store News: Swipe Fee Settlement Receives Preliminary Approval Despite Lingering Objections
"The vast majority of merchants oppose this proposed settlement," said MPC Executive Committee member and NACS General Counsel Doug Kantor. "We expect many more objections to be filed that will present the court with clear evidence of the profound problems with this settlement that would make the already broken credit card market even worse. We are hopeful that the judge will refuse to grant final approval, and that merchants will have their day in court."
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Preliminary Court Ruling on Visa/Mastercard Swipe Fees is Bad Deal for Merchants and Consumers
MPC expressed disappointment with a federal judge’s preliminary approval of a proposed settlement of merchants’ lawsuit over Visa and Mastercard credit card swipe fees, saying the settlement still fails to provide adequate relief.
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Reuters: Visa, Mastercard $38 billion swipe fee settlement wins US judge's approval
NACS General Counsel (and MPC Executive Committee member) Doug Kantor predicted "many more objections" will be filed.
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Payments Dive: Court approves Visa-Mastercard settlement
Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member), said Tuesday that “the vast majority of merchants out there across the country have concerns about the settlement.”
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Payment Week: Colorado interchange fee law vetoed
Doug Kantor of the National Association of Convenience Stores, speaking for the Merchants Payments Coalition, said the veto leaves small businesses and consumers paying inflated, price-fixed swipe charges not only on purchases but also on top of sales taxes, denying Coloradans more than $200 million annually in potential lower prices.
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The Hill: State laws provide relief, but nationwide credit card competition is the answer
"Every time someone proposes to do something about credit card swipe fee price-fixing, the banks claim that they will lose too much money and take away peoples’ credit card rewards. It is obviously and clearly wrong, but the banking industry spends so much money screaming so loudly that they hope no one will notice the gaping holes in their logic." -- Op-ed by MPC Executive Committee member and NACS General Counsel Doug Kantor.
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Merchants Disappointed by Veto of Colorado Bill to Ban Swipe Fees on Sales Tax
MPC expressed deep disappointment today after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis vetoed legislation that would have banned credit and debit card swipe fees on sales tax and was poised to deliver significant savings for small businesses and consumers across the state.
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Digital Transactions: Colorado Bill To Cut Sales Tax from Interchange Calculation Vetoed
“Colorado legislators stood up for small businesses and consumers, but this veto leaves them stuck paying inflated, price‑fixed swipe fees not just on their purchases but on top of sales taxes, too” says Doug Kantor, MPC executive committee member and general counsel at the National Association of Convenience Stores. “Coloradans deserved relief, and this decision denies them more than $200 million a year in lower prices. Eventually, common-sense reform of credit card swipe fees will win out over Wall Street misinformation and scare tactics.”
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Payments Dive: Colorado interchange fee law vetoed
“Colorado legislators stood up for small businesses and consumers, but this veto leaves them stuck paying inflated, price‑fixed swipe fees not just on their purchases but on top of sales taxes, too. Coloradans deserved relief, and this decision denies them more than $200 million a year in lower prices,” National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said in a Merchants Payments Coalition press release Thursday.
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Restaurant Dive: Illinois restaurants face more tip fees, for now
Doug Kantor, an MPC executive committee member and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, said that a rule issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which strengthened the case for the injunction, will face a legal challenge. Kantor said that court had to defer to the OCC’s preemption order, which was issued in April, because the OCC was not a party to the Illinois case and its order had not yet been challenged in a lawsuit. Kantor said that the OCC’s rule would soon face a court challenge seeking to invalidate the preemption and that the MPC was “confident [the court] will do so. The OCC has the law wrong on preemption, doesn’t have the power to do what it is trying to do, and violated the Administrative Procedure Act.”
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