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The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) announced it has joined Senator Richard Durbin, D-Ill., in calling for the Senate to vote on the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA). The bill has not been voted on since it was reintroduced in the Senate in June.
“The bill will benefit Americans who currently are paying the price for the credit card industry’s price-gouging schemes,” Durbin says. “It will give a fighting chance to the small businesses and restaurants we want to see stay open, support the mom-and-pop shops that make our communities feel whole and ultimately keep money in the pockets of hardworking Americans. It is time we bring this commonsense, consumer-protecting, bipartisan legislation to the floor for a vote.”
Durbin noted that the legislation has been recently endorsed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union and that unions, consumer groups, small businesses, competition advocates and others came together last month to form the Lower Credit Card Fees Coalition. The group also created the website, lowercreditcardfees.com, where visitors can learn information about the CCCA and reach out to their local representatives regarding this bill.
“We agree with Senator Durbin completely,” says Doug Kantor, MPC executive committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores general counsel. “The sponsors of this legislation were promised a vote and it’s time to make good on that promise. Small businesses and families can’t afford to suffer another day under these outrageous fees.”
Durbin says Visa and Mastercard, which control over 80% of the credit card market and set swipe fees charged by all banks that issue cards under their brands, are wielding enormous power over the American economy.
Credit and debit card swipe fees are most merchants’ highest operating cost after labor. Swipe fees are up 50% since the pandemic and hit a record $160.7 billion last year, costing the average family over $1,000 a year.
