Consumerist.com has a story today about Walmart speaking out over the deregulation of credit card swipe fees, which will allow retailers to charge shoppers more for paying with a Visa or Mastercard:
Earlier this month, when the Visa and MasterCard announced a massive settlement in the legal battle over credit card swipe fees, it looked like the seven-year-old dispute had finally come to an end — and that we’d all soon be seeing credit card surcharges at retailers. But in just the last few days, the nation’s largest retailers have come out in opposition of the settlement.
Yesterday, Walmart released this statement saying it was “disappointed” by the deal:
The proposed settlement would not structurally change the broken market or prohibit credit card networks from continually increasing hidden swipe fees, which already cost consumers tens of billions of dollars each year. The proposed settlement would require merchants to broadly waive their rights to take action against the credit card networks for detrimental conduct or acts. We believe the proposed settlement would also constrain emerging payments innovation…
…in a statement released late last week, Target writes that it “has no interest in surcharging guests who use credit and debit cards in order to allow VISA and MasterCard to continue charging unfair fees.”
