NACS Condemns Visa, Mastercard Settlement

The National Association of Convenience Stores disagrees with Visa and Mastercard’s assessment that the $30 billion antitrust settlement to limit swipe fees will help retailers. The association said that it may instead prevent the marketplace from changing.

The NACS said that the settlement would continue to lock Visa and Mastercard as the two entities responsible for setting banks’ swipe fees, rather than require the largest U.S. banks that issue Visa or Mastercard credit cards to allow transactions to be processed over at least two additional unaffiliated card payment networks, as would be mandated by the Credit Card Competition Act. 

“The settlement…does not address the lack of competition in the marketplace and is not related to the Credit Card Competition Act,” said the NACS in a statement.

On March 13 NACS members and elected leaders met on Capitol Hill to discuss swipe fee reform.

“The credit card industry has used the proposed settlement as a lobbying tool to tell Congress the fight is over—but it’s not,” said NACS VP of government relations Lyle Beckwith during the event.

The antitrust settlement is awaiting court approval, reports Reuters. It allegedly endeavors to limit credit and debit card fees for merchants with savings likely to ripple down to consumers through lower prices.

The decision would require Visa and Mastercard to reduce swipe rates by at least 0.04 percentage points for three years and an average rate that is 0.07 percent below the current average for five years, according to the report. The report added that the settlement will allow merchants more wiggle room to offer discounts. Full Story (Subscription Required)