Payments Dive: Colorado interchange fee law vetoed
“Colorado legislators stood up for small businesses and consumers, but this veto leaves them stuck paying inflated, price‑fixed swipe fees not just on their purchases but on top of sales taxes, too. Coloradans deserved relief, and this decision denies them more than $200 million a year in lower prices,” National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said in a Merchants Payments Coalition press release Thursday.
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Digital Transactions: Colorado Bill To Cut Sales Tax from Interchange Calculation Vetoed
“Colorado legislators stood up for small businesses and consumers, but this veto leaves them stuck paying inflated, price‑fixed swipe fees not just on their purchases but on top of sales taxes, too” says Doug Kantor, MPC executive committee member and general counsel at the National Association of Convenience Stores. “Coloradans deserved relief, and this decision denies them more than $200 million a year in lower prices. Eventually, common-sense reform of credit card swipe fees will win out over Wall Street misinformation and scare tactics.”
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Restaurant Dive: Illinois restaurants face more tip fees, for now
Doug Kantor, an MPC executive committee member and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, said that a rule issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which strengthened the case for the injunction, will face a legal challenge. Kantor said that court had to defer to the OCC’s preemption order, which was issued in April, because the OCC was not a party to the Illinois case and its order had not yet been challenged in a lawsuit. Kantor said that the OCC’s rule would soon face a court challenge seeking to invalidate the preemption and that the MPC was “confident [the court] will do so. The OCC has the law wrong on preemption, doesn’t have the power to do what it is trying to do, and violated the Administrative Procedure Act.”
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American Banker: Judge blocks Illinois from enforcing swipe fee ban
The Merchants Payments Coalition issued a statement on Tuesday expressing support for challenging the OCC's determination, which could lead to reconsideration of the ban. The OCC wasn't a party to the current case and the courts couldn't consider the preemption determination itself without a separate lawsuit. "As a result, the court had to accept the OCC rule," MPC Executive Committee member Doug Kantor said in a press release. "Soon, the courts will have the opportunity to invalidate that rule and we are confident they will do so." "The OCC has the law wrong on preemption, doesn't have the power to do what it is trying to do, and violated the Administrative Procedure Act," Kantor continued. "That rule will be overturned and the Illinois law — and any other state laws on swipe fees — will be able to go into effect."
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Merchants Say Judge’s Ruling on Illinois Swipe Fee Law is ‘Based on a Technicality’ and OCC Rule Will be Overturned
MPC said a federal judge’s ruling against Illinois’ ban on swipe fees on sales tax and tips is not the last word in the case and that the law is expected to eventually be upheld.
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Springfield State Journal-Register: Illinois delays controversial 'swipe fee' law
The Merchants Payments Coalition echoed IRMA, and estimates the wait to implement will elevate costs in Illinois by $500 million over the next year above what they would have been.
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The Center Square: Swipe fee battle continues after delay, court ruling
Merchants Payment Coalition executive committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores general counsel Doug Kantor said in a statement that he expects the IFPA to eventually be upheld. In April, Kantor told The Center Square that the Trump administration could take action to change the rule imposed by the OCC.
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Payments Dive: Judge blocks Illinois card fee law
Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores (and MPC Executive Committee member), contended that the court’s injunction is “based on a technicality.” “The OCC wasn’t a party to that case and there hadn’t been a lawsuit filed to challenge the validity of the OCC’s flawed rule,” Kantor wrote Monday in an email. “As a result, the court had to accept the OCC rule.” He predicted that courts will “invalidate” the OCC rule because the agency doesn’t have authority to preempt Illinois’ law and that the rule violated the Administrative Procedure Act. “That rule will be overturned and the Illinois law – and any other state laws on swipe fees – will be able to go into effect,” Kantor said.
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Progressive Grocer: Merchants Want Swipe Fee Rule Dropped, Cite Price-Fixing Impact
The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) urged the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to withdraw a pending rule intended to block state laws on credit card swipe fees, saying that the measure endorses price fixing that could drive up a wide range of fees that banks charge both merchants and consumers.
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Capitol News Illinois: Illinois’ ‘swipe fee’ law on the brink after another delay, adverse court ruling
The Merchant Payments Coalition, a group of retailers and similar businesses that advocates on credit and debit card issues, argued the new rule gives financial institutions dangerously broad fee-setting authority. “The revised language could apply broadly to numerous categories of consumer financial charges, including late fees, overdraft or over-limit fees, annual card fees, ATM fees and similar charges,” the MPC said in a statement. “By eliminating the expectation of independent competitive pricing, the rule risks encouraging industry-wide fee standardization at the expense of consumers and merchants alike.”
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