Antitrust Group

Payments News Update – January 17, 2025

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Buy Now, Pay Later Users Pile on Debt, CFPB Finds Payments Dive – January 14, 2025 Nearly two-thirds of consumers in the U.S. who lean on buy now, pay later transactions to pay for goods and services take out multiple BNPL loans at once, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concluded in a study released Monday. Most people who use BNPL as a payment method...

Payments News Update – January 10, 2025

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: The Fight Over Credit Card Swipe Fees Enters a New Year With No End in Sight NBC News – January 4, 2025 Many small businesses are breathing a bit easier as inflation has cooled and the race for workers slows. But consumers’ steady embrace of credit cards is taking a growing bite out of their margins. Gene-Christian Baca, the owner of Walter’s Hot Dogs in...

Payments News Update – January 3, 2025

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Merchants Hit Back at a Banking Group’s Request That the Fed Hold Off on Reducing a Debit Interchange Cap Digital Transactions News – December 24, 2024 The Merchants Payments Coalition fired back late Monday at a request last week from the American Bankers Association that the Federal Reserve not act on a proposal to lower a longstanding limit on the interchange...

Payments News Update – December 20, 2024

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: FTC Cracks Down on Hotel Junk Fees Hotel Dive – December 17, 2024 The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced a final Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, or “Junk Fees Rule,” that targets “bait-and-switch pricing” for short-term lodging and live-ticket events. The rule requires up-front disclosure of total prices including fees, so that consumers...

Payments News Update – December 13, 2024

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Europe Wants UK to Reconsider Proposal to Cap Credit Card Fees Bloomberg – December 12, 2024 (subscription may be required) A top UK regulator is facing pushback from European lawmakers as it continues to weigh new rules to restrict how much British merchants must pay in credit-card fees on online purchases by consumers from the continent. Members of the...

Payments News Update – December 6, 2024

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Musk Calls for End to CFPB Banking Dive – November 27, 2024  Business mogul and presumed Trump Cabinet appointee Elon Musk called for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in a post Wednesday on social media platform X, which he owns. “Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies,” Musk wrote. The consumer...

Payments News Update – November 22, 2024

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: A Senate Panel Sends a Signal: Time to Cut a Deal on Swipe Fees Digital Transactions News – November 20, 2024  Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee told representatives of Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., and the merchant community on Tuesday it was time to “negotiate” an end to their decades-old dispute over credit card swipe fees. The comments came during...

Payments News Update – November 15, 2024

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Swipe Fees Get Renewed Washington Focus in Aftermath of Election American Banker – November 12, 2024 (subscription required) Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., will hold a long-awaited hearing on pending swipe fee legislation. Executives from Visa and Mastercard, the two card networks most impacted by the bill, however, are not listed to...

Payments News Update – November 8, 2024

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Is Visa a Debit Monopolist? Digital Transactions Magazine – November 1, 2024 Lawsuits alleging anti-competitive practices are nothing new to Visa Inc. After all, the network, as well as MasterCard Inc., have been sued by the Department of Justice, merchants, and state attorneys general for decades over their pricing and business practices. When the DoJ filed its...

Payments News Update – November 1, 2024

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Chopra Defends CFPB Open Banking Rule in Face of Lawsuit Payments Dive – October 28, 2024 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra said on Sunday that a lawsuit filed over the agency’s open banking rule finalized earlier this month is an obstacle to increasing competition among financial institutions. Some banks are concerned about competing...