Retailers Swipe Fee Settlement Fails to Address Broken Payme

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and Retail Litigation Center (RLC) issued the following statement in response to the announcement of a second proposed settlement in the 13-year old antitrust lawsuit brought by merchants against Visa and Mastercard.  

"Today's proposed settlement is just another symptom of our nation's broken payment ecosystem. It still offers merchants only pennies on the dollar for the harms that they suffered as a result of the anti-competitive rules backed by the card networks and big banks," said RILA Senior Executive Vice President and RLC President Deborah White. "More importantly, the proposal does not provide for any changes in those rules – and would limit the ability to pursue meaningful change of the rules that the payments card cartel will install to govern the payment ecosystem in the future." 
 
"This settlement won't address the escalating fees collected by Wall Street and is a drop in the bucket when compared to the $90 billion that the payment networks currently collect every year in swipe fees. Visa and Mastercard will make this up by Christmas," added White.   

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RILA is the trade association of the world's largest and most innovative retail companies. RILA members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs, and more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities, and distribution centers domestically and abroad. 

The Retail Litigation Center is a public policy organization that identifies and engages in legal proceedings that affect the retail industry.  The RLC, whose members include some of the country's largest retailers, was formed to provide courts with retail industry perspectives on significant legal issues, and highlight the potential industry-wide consequences of legal principles that may be determined in pending cases.