Credit card swipe fees cost retailers and their customers $48 billion a year, amounting to $427 for the average household, according to NRF estimates. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing last week on legislation that would require card companies to negotiate over the ever-escalating fees, and other bills are pending both in Congress and [...]
Retailers’ battle with the credit card industry over constantly rising “interchange” fees charged to merchants every time a card is swiped to pay for a transaction is getting attention on multiple fronts this week. Interchange was the subject of a major op-ed article by American Antitrust Institute President Albert A. Foer published in the New [...]
NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan tells CNBC that this week’s $1.1 billion final payout from retailers’ lawsuit over Visa and MasterCard debit card practices “could not have come at a better time than Christmas” for merchants strained by the current economy. Read more about the lawsuit settlement.
Thousands of retailers struggling to survive the current recession could see a welcome influx of cash by Christmas if a federal judge approves a request to distribute more than $1 billion remaining from the six-year-old settlement of a lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard debit card practices. The class-action lawsuit, brought by NRF and about 20 [...]
I was able to catch up with NRF’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan about his recent testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. Mallory explains how the credit card industry is in an arms race to raise “swipe” fees. During the interview Mallory breaks down the issue of “swipe” fees and explains [...]
On Tuesday, NRF sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging government assistance for CIT, saying failure of the major lender could have severe consequences for the retail industry and the nation’s economy. For the last four days, NRF has been talking to business reporters worldwide about the importance — and urgency — of [...]