Payments Dive: Card Companies Called on Congressional Carpet
The Merchants Payments Coalition, which represents retailers, grocery and convenience stores, gas stations and online merchants, and the National Retail Federation praised Congress for calling the hearing and attacked the card companies for their practices.
READ MORE +
Merchants Welcome Senate Hearing on Anticompetitive Credit Card Industry Practices Fueling Inflation
The Merchants Payments Coalition welcomed today’s announcement that the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing next week on anticompetitive practices by the credit card industry that have led credit card “swipe” fees to more than double over the past decade and are driving up prices as consumers face near-record inflation.
READ MORE +
Quartz: Your No Annual Fee Credit Card is Costing You $700 a Year, US Retailers Say
But industry groups like the Merchants Payments Coalition say that by virtue of controlling the market—Visa accounts for 60% and Mastercard for 30%—those companies have the power to unduly inflate fees. ... “It is difficult to imagine any other market in the US economy in which two entities set prices for thousands of businesses that should be competitors,” the MPC said in March.
READ MORE +
USA Today: Credit Card Companies Adjust Merchants Fees, Consumer May Pay the Price
Leon Buck, vice president at the National Retail Federation, estimates the average family spends on fees about $700 a year -- an amount that will continue to climb with inflation since the fees are a percentage of their total spending bill. These fees “get factored into the cost of everything consumers buy,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel at the National Association of Convenience Stores. “This is bad for merchants, bad for consumers and bad for inflation.”
READ MORE +
Payments Dive: Lawmakers Seek to Cancel Card Fee Increases
The Merchants Payments Coalition praised the lawmakers' letter. "It’s very significant that lawmakers from both parties and both chambers of Congress have come together to stand up against the global card giants to protect small businesses and consumers," MPC Executive Committee Member Anna Ready Blom said in an April 15 MPC press release.
READ MORE +
Digital Transactions: Interchange Increases Will Exacerbate Inflation, a Growing List of Merchant Groups Contend
The NRF’s argument that the networks’ planned increases will make inflation worse echoes a similar case laid out last week by other merchant advocacy groups, including the Merchant Payments Coalition. The MPC on Friday said it welcomed a letter from both Democratic and Republican members of the House and Senate asking Visa and Mastercard to withdraw their planned interchange increases.
READ MORE +
Convenience Store News: Lawmakers Join the Call for Visa & Mastercard to Withdraw Swipe-Fee Increases Slated for This Month
Trade groups including the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) and the NRF applauded the letter. As Convenience Store News reported, the MPC in March unveiled an advertising campaign to educate Congress and other policymakers on increasing swipe fees credit card networks and big banks charge merchants to process transactions.
READ MORE +
Bipartisan Letter Stands Against Swipe Fee Increases
With credit card swipe fee increases set to begin this month, bipartisan members of the House and Senate sent a letter asking Visa and Mastercard to withdraw the increases, noting it would escalate the prices paid by consumers, who are already plagued by high inflation, according to The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC).
READ MORE +
Legislators Urge Visa, Mastercard to Cancel Swipe-Fee Increases
“It’s very significant that lawmakers from both parties and both chambers of Congress have come together to stand up against the global card giants to protect small businesses and consumers,” said Anna Ready Blom, a member of the MPC executive committee and NACS director of government relations. “This shows that this is an issue that crosses political lines. This is about the card industry continuing to profit on the backs of Main Street merchants and hard-working American families at a time when they can least afford it.”
READ MORE +
Letter Shows Both Republicans and Democrats Support Credit Card Swipe Fee Competition Amid Rising Inflation
The Merchants Payments Coalition today welcomed a letter from bipartisan members of the House and Senate asking Visa and Mastercard to withdraw credit card swipe fee increases set to take effect this month, and agreed that the increases would drive up prices paid by consumers already facing high inflation.
READ MORE +