I apologize if this has already been discussed/posted:

Retail groups sue Visa, MasterCard



Monday September 26, 2:47 PM EDT


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Several retail groups have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa USA, MasterCard International and dozens of major U.S. banks, saying they acted together to set excessive credit card fees.

The lawsuit, filed Friday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, concerns interchange fees, which retail merchants pay to issuing banks to receive payments for transactions involving the banks' cards.

It is similar to a lawsuit filed in July by Kroger Co. (KR), Walgreen Co. (WAG) and other retailers accusing Visa of setting fees too high.

The plaintiffs include the National Association of Convenience Stores, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the National Community Pharmacists Association and the National Cooperative Grocers Association. These groups collectively represent hundreds of thousands of U.S. stores that accept Visa and MasterCard as a form of payment.



Among the defendant banks are Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. © and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the largest U.S. credit card issuers.

Bank of America was not immediately available for comment. Visa, MasterCard, Citigroup and JPMorgan did not immediately return calls.

Interchange fees make up the largest component of credit card fees and have long been a source of friction between retailers and card companies.

In 2003, Visa agreed to pay about $2 billion and MasterCard $1 billion to settle a lawsuit by retailers claiming they were forced to accept higher-cost, signature-verified debit cards.

So what? You don't have to accept credit cards...but your sales will suffer, of course...especially if you sell big-ticket items. Can you imagine what would happen to Best Buy if they stopped accepting Visa and MC???

No, you don't have to accept credit cards, but it's also illegal to collude to set prices on the other side. Not saying they're doing that, but it makes one wonder.

Then again, it could be nothing more than airline or gas pump prices... one changes, up or down, and the others rush to make the same change... independent of each other, but still seemingly together.

Personally, my suspicion is they're actually looking for a way to pass the fee on to the consumer in the long run, thus avoiding it altogether. Yes, I know some states have laws against that, but laws are constantly in flux, and if the CC companies were to suddenly reverse course, and they and merchants lobbied together, it's not unthinkable to see a time where those laws might be reversed by state legislatures.

That's the Golden Rule...whoever has the GOLD makes the RULES!

The borrower is a slave to the lender.

THEN JOIN THE CASH ONLY CULT PROBLEM SOLVED

You didn't get it... but, that's ok. Maybe something above "drive-by posting" would work better. Quality, not quantity, ya know.

I'M A LITTLE STUPID THESE DAYS...