Chain Drug Review: Swipe fees hit record $198B as reform efforts grow
Credit and debit card “swipe” fees reached a record $198.25 billion in 2025, an increase of 5.9% from the previous year, as pressure continues in Washington for action on rising payment costs, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition. “Credit card swipe fees make just about everything Americans buy more expensive,” said Doug Kantor, MPC executive committee member and general counsel at the National Association of Convenience Stores. “Swipe fees set a new record by taking more of our money every year, and the impact on American families and small businesses is devastating.”
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Hardware Retailing: Record Credit Card Swipe Fees Fuel Calls for Credit Card Competition Act Reform
Credit and debit card “swipe” fees have reached $198.25 billion, a new record, amid calls by President Trump and others to decrease the fees, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC). “Credit card swipe fees make just about everything Americans buy more expensive,” says MPC executive committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores general counsel Doug Kantor. “Swipe fees set a new record by taking more of our money every year and the impact on American families and small businesses is devastating. President Trump, lawmakers across the political spectrum, business groups, labor unions, consumer groups, Native American tribes and more are calling for bipartisan swipe fee reform. It’s time for Congress to make America affordable again by ending the swipe fee ripoff.”
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Home Building Supply Dealer: Swipe fees hit record high in 2025
Credit and debit card swipe fees that big banks and global card networks charge merchants to process transactions reached a new record of $198.25 billion in 2025, according to the Merchants Payments Coalition. “Credit card swipe fees make just about everything Americans buy more expensive,” MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said. “Swipe fees set a new record by taking more of our money every year and the impact on American families and small businesses is devastating. It’s time for Congress to make America affordable again by ending the swipe fee ripoff.”
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Payments Dive: State interchange fee laws progress
Meanwhile, the Merchant Payments Coalition issued a press release Thursday noting that combined debit and credit card fees last year climbed nearly 6% to a record annual $198.25 billion, citing a report from the research firm Nilson Report. “Credit card swipe fees make just about everything Americans buy more expensive,” National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said in the MPC release. It’s time to end the “swipe fee ripoff,” said Kantor, who is also an MPC Executive Committee member.
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Digital Transactions: The Card Industry’s Endless War
Merchants argue that prohibition creates cartel pricing, rather than competitive pricing, says Doug Kantor, a Merchants Payments Coalition executive committee member and general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. Neither the MPC nor NACS is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “The defendants did not address the court’s concerns in their latest settlement offer,” Kantor says. “They tinkered at the edges a bit, but no major changes were made that addressed the central issue [of the lawsuit].”
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Law360: Ill. Swipe Fee Ruling Sets Stage For A High-Stakes Appeal
The Merchants Payments Coalition called the ruling "a major victory for merchants, their customers and their employees," arguing that merchants are unfairly punished with fees for performing a pass-through service (i.e., collecting taxes remitted to the government and tips given to workers), while consumers bear the ultimate cost through higher prices.[
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Payments Dive: CCCA seeks new path to passage
The timing is unclear, but sponsors of the housing bill, Sens. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), are aware of the Marshall-Durbin desire to offer an amendment, said (MPC Executive Committee member) Doug Kantor, who has advocated for the CCCA as general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores. Warren has previously supported capping credit card fees. “I think [Scott and Warren] are fully aware that the sponsors of the CCCA will take any opportunity that is presented to them,” Kantor said in an interview Wednesday. “We’re sort of waiting to hear.”
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U.S. Sun: The truth behind the new credit-card swipe fee law as Americans are forced to cough up $1,200 in extra charges
Doug Kantor – of the National Association of Convenience Stores – said increased competition would benefit businesses and consumers. The association is part of the Merchants Payment Coalition. “When the merchant has more money, than they can pay their employees or expand and open a new store — that’s good for everybody,” he said. “When customers have more money in their pockets so that they can buy more things, that’s good for everybody. “It’s good for the economy. It’s good for the customer. So taking that friction out, that really adds up.”
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JD Supra: Federal Court Partially Upholds Illinois Law Limiting Interchange Fees
In 2022, Americans conducted over 89 billion debit card transactions worth $4.0 trillion and over 55 billion credit card transactions worth $5.4 trillion. Interchange fees hit a record $187.2 billion in 2024 according to the Merchants Payments Coalition.
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CardRates.com: Interchange at Risk in Illinois
Merchant groups came out in support of the ruling, with the Merchant Payments Coalition releasing a statement that labeled it a major victory.
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