There’s no need for consumers to worry about swipe fees being pushed onto them by retailers just because Visa/MasterCard antitrust settlement allows merchants to do so in some states, says consumer advocate Ed Mierzwinski at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in an article. He says the “checkout fee” or surcharge would be a sure way for business owners to lose customers, and they definitely don’t want this to happen.
The settlement has not fixed the broken swipe fee market, Mierzwinski argues. Merchants don’t think it’s fair to punish their customers for using a credit card and they will continue footing extremely high credit card fee bills.
Mierzwinski explains that the $6 billion payout in the settlement is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount retailers pay in swipe fees, especially since the settlement does not prevent Visa and MasterCard from raising the fees.
Moreover, it took away merchants’ right to ever sue the credit card companies over the fees or any payment technologies, even those that are not being used yet, no matter how unjust or illegal they might be. This gives Visa and MasterCard even more power in a market they already control.
Read this article by Ed Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group to find out more about why the settlement did not fix the swipe fee problem.
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