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FMI lauds introduction of Credit Card Fair Fee Act |
06.12.2009
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By Ellen Ranta
ARLINGTON, Va.-The Food Marketing Institute praised the introduction of legislation that would allow merchants to negotiate interchange fees as a group with Visa and Mastercard and the banks that issue those cards.
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The bipartisan bill, which was introduced June 4 by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Rep. Bill Schuster, R-Pa., is titled the Credit Card Fair Act Fee of 2009 and will grant antitrust immunity to merchants of all sizes in order for them to join as a group to negotiate fees with the largest credit card companies, Visa and Mastercard. The Attorney General will have oversight authority to monitor the negotiation process and any negotiated agreements will be publicly available.
"Retailers need the right to negotiate reasonable fees with credit card companies, a fundamental practice in the American free enterprise system," said Leslie G. Sarasin, FMI president and chief executive officer, in a prepared statement.
The cost of interchange fees has tripled from $16.6 billion in 2001 to more than $48 billion in 2008, according to the Merchants Payment Coalition and data from the Nilson Report.
According to the FMI statement, small community banks and credit unions will have the ability to opt out of the antitrust exemption and negotiations if they choose. The bill will maintain traditional antitrust protections to consumers and the legislation will only apply to card systems that process 20 percent or more of the total credit and debit card transactions at the time of the negotiation.
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