CSP Daily News: Mastercard Must Cease Debit Card Routing Block
“Main Street businesses thank the Federal Trade Commission for its work to ensure that Mastercard stops blocking competition for ecommerce debit-card payments,” said Doug Kantor, MPC Executive Committee member and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). “More than a decade after debit reform became law, it is well past time for Mastercard and also Visa and major banks to drop all of their efforts to undermine debit-card competition. We look forward to additional enforcement actions to ensure that happens.”
READ MORE +
NACS Daily: FTC Orders Mastercard to Cease Anticompetitive Debit Card Practices
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) welcomed an order by the Federal Trade Commission in late December that Mastercard cease practices the agency says have illegally blocked merchants’ ability to route e-commerce debit card transactions over competing networks.
READ MORE +
Digital Transactions: The CCCA's Long Shadow
This ongoing merchant-bank payment conflict isn’t exactly top-of-mind for most consumers. But it broke into the public consciousness in November when NACS, with backing from the Merchants Payments Coalition lobbying group, ran a TV commercial that used Visa Inc.’s sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup to decry credit card acceptance fees and advocate for the CCCA. The 30-second ad used the image of a giant credit card blocking a soccer goal and claimed “unfair hidden fees” add up to almost $1,000 a year in higher prices for each American family. In December, the MPC and NACS followed up with a holiday-themed 30-second commercial in which the announcer proclaims, “Unfortunately, credit card companies are still stuffing our stockings” with unfair swipe fees. As a Christmas tree crashes to the floor under the weight of swipe fees on cards in a stocking, the narrator urges viewers to tell Congress to pass the CCCA. The commercial is part of a seven-figure ad campaign.
READ MORE +
Convenience Store News: The Top Legislative & Regulatory Moves of 2022
hese are the top 10 legislative & regulatory headlines of 2022, as reported by Convenience Store News Online: 1. Retailers Continue to Push for Passage of Credit Card Competition Act -- The Merchants Payments Coalition and trade associations urge lawmakers to provide relief for small businesses.
READ MORE +
Bangor Daily News: Credit Card Swipe Fees Wipe Out Profits for Small Businesses
Nationwide, credit and debit card swipe fees soared 25 percent last year alone to a record $138 billion and have more than doubled over the past decade. Swipe fees are most merchants’ highest cost after labor — far too high to absorb — and drive up prices by $900 a year for the average family, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition.
READ MORE +
Austin American-Statesman: Soaring Credit Card 'Swipe' Fees are Hurting Small Businesses
Swipe fees are most merchants’ highest operating cost after labor – far too much to absorb – and drive up consumer prices by about $900 a year for the average Texas family, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition.
READ MORE +
Forbes: FTC's Mastercard Ruling is a Victory for Merchants, Consumers and Dodd-Frank
Doug Kantor, General Counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores and MPC Executive Committee member, says “Mastercard has been particularly egregious at preventing merchants from using other networks.”
READ MORE +
American Banker: FTC Orders Mastercard to Open Tokens to Rival Debit Networks
"Main Street businesses thank the Federal Trade Commission for its work to ensure that Mastercard stops blocking competition for e-commerce debit card payments," said Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. "More than a decade after debit reform became law, it is well past time for Mastercard and also Visa and major banks to drop all of their efforts to undermine debit card competition. We look forward to additional enforcement actions to ensure that happens."
READ MORE +
Merchants Welcome FTC Order That Mastercard Can't Block Routing Competition for Ecommerce Debit Transactions
The Merchants Payments Coalition welcomed today’s order by the Federal Trade Commission that Mastercard cease practices the agency says have illegally blocked merchants’ ability to route ecommerce debit card transactions over competing networks.
READ MORE +
Payments Dive: Card Competition Act Skids Toward 2023
“We are focused on the next session of Congress and look forward to seeing this pro-consumer, bipartisan bill become law next year,” said National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor. “With consumers and small businesses increasingly calling on Congress to do something about skyrocketing swipe fees, the question isn’t if this bill will pass but when,” said Kantor, who is also an MPC Executive Committee member. “Lawmakers know swipe fees are out of control and driving up prices for American families at a time when they can least afford it.”
READ MORE +