FTC Investigating Visa EMV Routing Practices and other Digital Transactions News briefs

• The Federal Reserve posted a notice that a payment network violates the debit card transaction-routing requirements in its rule implementing the Dodd-Frank Act’s Durbin Amendment if the network requires a merchant to allow a cardholder to choose an application that routes to only one network during an EMV debit card purchase. Durbin requires debit cards to offer merchants a choice of at least two unaffiliated networks and bans networks, issuers, and processors from interfering with such choices. The Retail Industry Leaders Association trade group sent a letter to Visa Inc.’s current and incoming CEOs demanding to know the “immediate steps” Visa will take in response to the Fed’s declaration; retailers have accused Visa of subverting their EMV debit routing preferences, charges Visa denies.

• In related news, Visa’s newly filed annual report for fiscal 2016 discloses that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether the company’s EMV requirements inhibit merchants’ debit card routing choices. Visa said it is cooperating with the FTC.

• USA Technologies Inc., a provider of payment services for vending machines and other unattended merchant locations, introduced its Universal Card Link (UCL) Connector, which enables amusement and arcade operators to accept credit and debit cards and near-field communication-based mobile wallets at video games with a single cable.

• Payment gateway Shift4 Corp. announced it is enhancing its support for the Oracle Payment Interface.

• Data provider Womply said it raised $30 million in a recent funding round that it will use to hire staff, expand its products, and reach more small and mid-size businesses.

• A study by transit-fare technology provider Cubic Transportation Systems and MasterCard Inc. about the impact of New York City’s “Car Free Day NYC” in April found that subway ridership during the one-day event increased by 30,000 riders over daily averages.

• EMVCo published a white paper about its Payment Account Reference (PAR), a transaction data element for merchants, merchant acquirers, and payment processors that the chip card standards body introduced earlier this year to protect against fraud by reducing reliance on the use of primary account numbers.

• The ATM Industry Association published a new study entitled “Trends and Practices in ATM Lifecycle Support Management,” which examines outsourcing and models for ownership and service management.