The deal would lower and cap the fees charged by Visa and Mastercard and allow small businesses to collectively bargain for rates with the payment processors in a similar way that the large merchants do on their own now.
Industry groups for retailers both small and large said the settlement is a positive development, but far more needs to be done to remedy the current swipe-fee situation. They noted that the lowered fees would be only for a limited period of time — three to five years — after which the fees would return to their current levels.
“While this settlement is a step in the right direction and will provide a limited amount of short-term relief to small businesses, it does not solve the long-term anti-competitive rate-setting practices that are the root of this problem,” said Jeff Brabant, vice president of federal government relations at the National Federation of Independent Business, a smallbusiness advocacy group. “As long as the credit card networks, Visa and Mastercard, get to set the interchange rates for every bank that issues a credit card, anti-competitive pricing will remain, and small businesses will continue to pay artificially high rates.”
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