Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a U.S. Department of Justice request to reconsider a decision by a three-judge panel of the appellate court that, by reversing a lower-court ruling, allows American Express Co. to prevent its merchants from encouraging customers to use lower-cost forms of payment than …
Read More »Supreme Court To Hear Free-Speech Argument Against New York’s Surcharge Ban
By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews For the second time in less than two months, a major payments case is coming before the Supreme Court. On Tuesday, lawyers for merchants and the state of New York will argue before the eight justices over whether the state’s ban on credit card surcharges constitutes illegal …
Read More »Wal-Mart And Visa Come to Terms, Ending a Months-Long Ban on Visa at Canadian Stores
One of the most intense battles yet seen over card-acceptance costs is over. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced late Thursday it has ended its ban on Visa Inc. cards at 19 Canadian stores as of Friday. “We have come to an agreement with Visa which allows us to continue offering Visa …
Read More »New Pew Report Says Overdraft Fees Need More Regulation
A new report by The Pew Charitable Trusts says a minority of “financially vulnerable” consumers generate most overdraft fee revenue for banks, and it calls for bank regulators to put stricter controls on the controversial fee. The report uses data from the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, more than 40 banks, and …
Read More »ATM Operators Cheer After Supreme Court Tosses Visa-MasterCard Appeal in Fee Case
By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews After five years, it looks like class-action lawsuits by ATM independent sales organizations and consumers challenging Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. rules over ATM surcharging on antitrust grounds may finally be headed to trial. The U.S. Supreme Court last week dismissed appeals by Visa and MasterCard after …
Read More »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. …
Read More »Visa’s EMV Debit Routing Practices Attract the Attention of the FTC And the Fed
By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Visa Inc.’s practices involving EMV debit card transaction routing, Visa disclosed Tuesday. And the Federal Reserve earlier this month posted guidance about EMV debit routing that, according to retailer trade groups, was issued in response to their objections to Visa’s practices …
Read More »Four Months After the ‘Halving,’ Bitcoin Returns to $700-Plus Price Territory
By John Stewart@DTPaymentNews Bitcoin is on a tear again. The cryptocurrency has breached the $700 price barrier seven times out of the last nine days, according to data from Blockchain.info, and bids fair to remain above that level Tuesday. It was trading at $709 early in the day, according to …
Read More »Only One Direction for ATM Fees: Up
Consumers continue to pay higher fees for out-of-network ATM transactions, but have more access to free, non-interest checking accounts, says Bankrate Inc.’s annual survey of checking-account fees. Combined surcharges levied by ATM deployers and a consumer’s own bank total $4.57, up 5 cents, or 1.1%, from a year ago, a …
Read More »PIN-Debit Wins Give MasterCard’s Transaction Volumes a Boost
By Jim Daly@DTPayment News Most of the chatter about how the debit card market has changed in the five years since the Durbin Amendment took effect centers on what market leader Visa Inc. is doing, or how the electronic funds transfer networks are maneuvering to stay alive and grow. But …
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