Small businesses claim they have legitimate concerns that their larger counterparts will be the beneficiaries of lower card acceptance costs should the Credit Card Competition Act become law, argues the Small Business Payments Alliance, a trade organization recently formed by the Electronic Payments Coalition. Among the concerns about how the …

Credit card interchange has come under assault, and not for the first time. Now, though, the stakes are higher than ever. The cleverly crafted “Credit Card Competition Act of 2023” from Sens. Durbin, Marshall, Welch, and Vance is the latest salvo in a forever war against payments-industry fees, including how …

Supporters and U.S. Senate sponsors of the Credit Card Competition Act stepped up pressure to pass the bill Wednesday with a Washington press conference featuring Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.). The legislators attacked merchants’ card-transaction costs as price gouging and said the levies make …

The latest battle in the war over the proposed Credit Card Competition Act has focused on the question whether the legislation would cut rewards and other benefits for cardholders. Citing research from the consulting firm CMSPI, the Merchants Payments Coalition, a lobbying group for sellers, argues that passage of the …

With proposals aimed at controlling merchants’ costs for accepting credit cards having re-emerged in Congress, research has been emerging on both sides of the issue this summer as advocates for sellers and card issuers compete to influence any eventual legislation. The latest thrust appeared Monday with a research report arguing …