Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• Two merchant organizations have filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a U.S. Department of Justice filing that asks the full panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear a 6-year-old case alleging anti-steering rules established by American Express Co. are anti-competitive. A three-judge panel of that court ruled in AmEx’s favor in that case in September, following a U.S. District Court ruling against AmEx in February 2015. The two merchant groups, the Retail Litigation Center and the National Retail Federation, allege that business lost by merchants that have stopped accepting AmEx demonstrates that the card company has market power. The Justice Department is a plaintiff in the case, along with 17 state attorneys general. AmEx rules ban merchants from steering customers using AmEx to use other cards.
• A debit-payment provider called CanPay, which caters to the cannabis industry, announced its availability to retailers and consumers in Washington, Oregon, and Colorado.
• ATM network operator Cardtronics plc announced a long-term contract extension with The Kroger Co., the largest traditional grocery store in the U.S.; Cardtronics owns and operates approximately 1,300 ATMs in Kroger grocery and convenience stores under 13 brands in 32 states.
• Terminal maker PAX Technology is set to unveil what it says is the world’s first Android-based mobile tablet terminal with full industry certifications, the A920.
• Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) unit announced independent software vendors (ISVs) and other clients can now subscribe to software-as-a-service applications and application programming interfaces from a wide range of providers directly through AWS.
• Location-services company Skyhook announced it has been hired by terminal maker VeriFone System Inc.’s media division to measure the impact of its at-the-pump advertising campaigns.
• Oberthur Technologies announced it has opened two new data centers in Europe and the United States to meet increased demand for digital-security solutions, particularly in mobile payments and the Internet of Things.
• The board of directors of banking and payments technology provider Fiserv Inc. authorized the repurchase of 15 million shares of the company’s common stock.
• Ensenta, a provider of software for real-time mobile and online payments and deposits, has contracted to receive data on the digital channels offered by more than 10,000 financial institutions. Data will include analytics such as client churn rates and demographics.
