C|C Payments Blog

Payments News Update - July 14, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: CFPB Takes Action Against Bank of America for Illegally Charging Junk Fees, Withholding Credit Card Rewards, and Opening Fake Accounts CFPB – July 11, 2023 Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered Bank of America to pay more than $100 million to customers for systematically double-dipping on fees imposed on customers with insufficient funds in...

Payments News Update - June 2, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: More Than 80% Of Central Banks Are Investigating CBDC Central Banking – June 2, 2023 Eighty-three per cent of central banks are working on projects investigating central bank digital currency (CBDC) for retail payments purposes, data from the Payments Benchmark 2023 shows. Eighteen central banks said they were in the research phase of CBDC development. Another...

Payments News Update - March 31, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Ottawa Moves to Lower Credit Card Swipe Fees for Small Businesses in 2023 Budget The Globe and Mail – March 28, 2023 The federal government said it has worked out a deal with Visa and Mastercard to lower the transaction fees that small businesses pay every time a customer uses their credit card. The 2023 federal budget, released Tuesday, said the government...

Payments News Update - March 10, 2023

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: The Credit Card Competition Act: What Is It, and Why You Should Care PaymentsJournal – March 7, 2023 The Credit Card Competition Act—introduced last year by a bipartisan group of senators—may be under consideration during this session of Congress, and industry groups are lining up for and against. If implemented, cards from the nation’s largest banks...

Payments News Update - July 22, 2022

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Lawsuit Accuses Apple of Antitrust Violations Over Apple Pay Reuters – July 18, 2022 Apple Inc (AAPL.O) was sued on Monday in a proposed class action by payment card issuers accusing the iPhone maker of abusing its market power in mobile devices to thwart competition for its Apple Pay mobile wallet. According to a complaint filed in San Francisco federal...

Payments News Update - June 24, 2022

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: UK Watchdog to Review Post-Brexit Visa and Mastercard Fees Reuters – June 21, 2022

Britain's payment systems regulator (PSR) will conduct two market reviews of card fees charged by Visa and Mastercard, the U.S. companies that account for 99% of debit and credit card payments in the UK. The PSR's announcement on Tuesday follows heavy pressure from lawmakers to launch...

Payments News Update - June 10, 2022

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: Lawmakers Seek to Push Antitrust, Privacy Bills as Big Tech Revamps Lobbying Efforts PYMNTS – June 10, 2022 Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple have been living for the last years with the threat of new legislation in the U.S. that could limit their ability to operate their platforms, and especially during the last 18 months since President Joe Biden took office. But...

U.S. Adoption of a Central Bank Digital Currency Could Revitalize Payments Markets With Competition

The ailing U.S. payments markets could get a shot of much-needed competition if the U.S. government follows through on proposals to adopt a Central Bank Digital Currency (“CBDC”)—which would be issued by the Federal Reserve. The competitive failings of U.S. payments markets were highlighted a few weeks ago at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on interchange or “swipe fees,” the fees that merchants pay...

Payments News Update – May 26, 2022

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: CFPB Recasts Innovation Office to Emphasize Competition Banking Dive – May 25, 2022 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is leaving the sandbox and recasting its innovation efforts to emphasize its role in promoting competition. The agency’s newly established Office of Competition and Innovation, announced Tuesday, aims to explore how customers can...

Pass-on Defences and Indirect Claims: Will UK Courts Apply the Same Antitrust Sauce to the Goose as to the Gander?

How the UK is sorting out the rights of direct and indirect purchasers to claim damages for anti-competitive conduct. By Richard Pike It is well-established in economic literature that anti-competitive conduct may increase prices not only for direct purchasers but also for indirect purchasers. As UK courts are now demonstrating, however, determining who should be allowed to recover, and what each party must...