Stop Wall Street from Fleecing Merchants

Competition is a hallmark of America’s retail industry. It drives innovation and brings consumers lower prices and new products and services. However, the absence of competition in the payments ecosystem has resulted in bloated fees that every U.S. merchant pays to accept credit and debit cards. In 2021, U.S. retailers paid an astounding $138 billion to accept electronic payments, a significant increase from 2015 when merchants paid $83 billion, and this past year’s number is more than double what the retail community paid in 2011, $64 billion.
 

In partnership with the Retail Litigation Center, RILA is pursuing legislative and legal remedies. RILA recently won a critical victory with the Federal Reserve’s clarification for online debit routing. After the enactment of Durbin amendment as part of the Dodd-Frank reform bill RILA has spent the past several years working with the Federal Reserve and Federal Trade Commission on ensuring a “merchants right to route” are not blocked by Visa and Mastercard.  

The lack of routing options in the ecommerce environment were compounded during the pandemic, with Americans significantly altering their shopping behaviors. The Fed’s clarification, set to go into effect on July 1, 2023, will bring meaningful competition to online debit routing and save merchants hundreds of millions of dollars. RILA will continue to advocate for legislation that brings competition into the credit and debit markets while the Retail Litigation Center looks at potential litigation routes to seek potential damages for failure to follow the law.

Tags
  • Retail Works for All of Us
  • Supporting Free Markets and Fostering Innovation
  • Payments
  • Competition

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