Chain Drug Review: Retailers urge Senate to approve swipe‑fee amendment
The Merchants Payments Coalition and nearly 350 merchant trade associations urged the Senate Agriculture Committee to include the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) as an amendment to upcoming cryptocurrency marketplace legislation. The CCCA was recently endorsed by President Trump. “We call on you to choose Main Street merchants and American consumers over Wall Street megabanks and global card networks,” the organizations said in a letter to members of the committee. “While this legislation would benefit all merchants, it is small retailers who are calling for swipe fee reform more than any other segment of our industry. Small retailers have the narrowest profit margins and fewest resources and are hit hardest by continuing unjustified increases in swipe fees.”
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Gifts and Decorative Accessories: Merchants Push Senate Ag Committee to Approve Swipe Fee Reform in Crypto Legislation
The Merchants Payments Coalition and other merchant groups from across the country today urged the Senate Agriculture Committee to include the Credit Card Competition Act, which was recently endorsed by President Donald Trump, as part of cryptocurrency marketplace structure legislation. “We call on you to choose Main Street merchants and American consumers over Wall Street megabanks and global card networks,” the organizations said in a letter to members of the committee. “While this legislation would benefit all merchants, it is small retailers who are calling for swipe fee reform more than any other segment of our industry. Small retailers have the narrowest profit margins and fewest resources and are hit hardest by continuing unjustified increases in swipe fees.”
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Digital Transactions: Another CCCA Avenue?
The Merchants Payments Coalition released a letter from it and 350 merchant groups in support of the Credit Card Competition Act urging that the bill be attached to a proposed cryptocurrency marketplace structure legislation. The measure is expected to be discussed Tuesday by the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee.
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Compass Vermont: Peter Welch Wants to Lower Credit Card Costs; JP Morgan Says ‘Try It in Vermont First’
The Merchants Payments Coalition estimates that credit and debit card swipe fees totaled $236 billion in 2024, based on data from payments consultancy CMSPI. Divided across approximately 130 million American households, proponents calculate this represents roughly $1,200 to $1,800 per family annually.
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Payments Dive: Merchant lawyers laud surcharge option
“Their whole approach to that is wrong from the start, which is why the settlement is not helpful and why many, many merchants opposed it,” said Doug Kantor, general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores. Surcharges cause customers to “get upset about it and assume it’s the merchant doing something,” Kantor said Friday in a telephone call. Kantor is also an executive with the Merchants Payments Coalition, which has joined other merchant groups in battling the networks, including over the Credit Card Competition Act.
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The Food Institute: With Trump’s Support, the Credit Card Competition Act Has Legs
The Merchants Payments Coalition calculated that swipe fees amount to an average of nearly $1,200 a year per American household, basing its analysis on the same Nilson data.
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American Banker: While banks trash card restrictions, merchant lobbyists are cheering
"Giant credit card companies and Wall Street banks have gotten away with price-fixing credit card swipe fees and sticking everyday Americans with the bill for years," Merchant Payments Coalition executive committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel Doug Kantor said in a release. "Enough is enough, and the President deserves enormous credit for taking on this issue that secretly eats away at every family's budget."
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Convenience Stores News: Credit Card Competition Act Gains New Life
"From President Trump endorsing the bill to Sen. Durbin making a push for passage on the Senate floor, momentum to finally bring competition to credit card swipe fees is at the highest level we've ever seen and is building quickly," said MPC Executive Committee member and NACS General Counsel Doug Kantor. "When Donald Trump, Roger Marshall, Dick Durbin, Lance Gooden and Zoe Lofgren all agree on something, that's a clear sign that this is a nonpartisan issue that impacts American families across the political spectrum."
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Credit Unions Today: Merchants Coalition Cheers Durbin Push For Credit Card Competition Act After Trump Endorsement
The Merchants Payments Coalition this week praised comments by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) after he urged the Senate to pass the Credit Card Competition Act, citing President Donald Trump’s recent endorsement of the long-stalled measure.
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Woodall's Campground Magazine: Credit Card Competition Act Reintroduced, Trump Endorses
OHI has championed this bipartisan legislation through a multi-industry coalition called the Merchants Payments Coalition, traveling to Washington DC with more than 75 different OHI-member outdoor hospitality businesses in the past two years.
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