…

The battle against swipe fees is heating up.

If you’ve been reading TPG for the past year and a half, you’ve probably seen our reporting on the Credit Card Competition Act, a bipartisan bill in Congress aimed at capping swipe fees and interchange fees.

The bill would require credit card issuing banks to offer at least two networks for merchants processing electronic credit card transactions. The bill’s authors say this would create more competition in the credit card industry by requiring merchants to pay interchange or swipe fees when shoppers swipe their credit cards.

Card companies charge merchants in exchange for customers using credit cards at those merchants; Businesses from mom-and-pop shops to hotels are charged every time a customer pays with a credit card.

But the national effort isn’t the only threat to the big credit card companies. At least three states have introduced bills targeting excessive swipe fees at the state level.

Here’s a roundup of all current state laws as of July 9.

Illinois

The Illinois state legislature included a provision in its fiscal 2025 budget that would ban swipe fees on sales taxes, state excise taxes and gratuities — marking the first state law of its kind.

Interchange Fee Prohibition Act Allows retailers to receive reimbursement for swipe fees paid on tax and gratuity starting July 1, 2025. Democratic Governor JB Pritzker signed the bill in June.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who is a key figure in the Senate working to pass federal legislation to dramatically limit swipe fees, came out strongly in favor of the Illinois law.

“The Illinois State Legislature has taken a major step forward against swipe fees charged by credit card companies — fees that are non-negotiable for merchants and used by big banks to pad their already high profits,” Durbin said in a statement. ,” Durbin said in a statement. “Now the federal government should take a page from Illinois’ book.”

New York

On 11 February, The Credit Card Surcharge Law New York State requires sellers who apply credit card surcharges to sales transactions to disclose the total cost of customer credit card transactions, including the surcharge.

In addition, the law prohibits sellers from charging a final price in excess of the posted price and prohibits sellers from imposing credit card surcharges in excess of those charged by the credit card company to the seller for use of such card.

Credit card surcharge laws apply whether the surcharge is a percentage fee or a fixed amount.

Pennsylvania

As of June 27, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives is considering it Bill to Bar Interchange Fee On sales tax when merchants accept credit or debit cards for payment.

House Bill 2394 aims to reduce credit card swipe fees by eliminating their application to state sales taxes. Same law has been presented In more than a dozen other states.

“What’s happened in Pennsylvania and Illinois will create credit card chaos,” said Richard Hunt, executive director of the Electronic Payments Coalition trade group lobbying against the bill. told Politico. “It would be an operational nightmare.”

Bottom line

As of July, supporters have consistently failed to advance the Credit Card Competition Act, most recently through the fiscal year 2024 spending bill. However, they will undoubtedly keep trying.

“Similar bills have been introduced — and rejected — in about 30 states,” said Nick Simpson, managing director of the Electronic Payments Coalition. “Because this has never been done, it’s hard to say exactly how it would affect rewards programs. . It doesn’t have the same potential to eliminate these programs as the Durbin-Marshall bill, but it could weaken rewards programs and certainly result in a loss of convenience and privacy for consumers.”

This type of legislation has the potential to seriously impact customer rewards, so TPG is campaigning hard against this bill. The proposed national law would likely limit consumers’ ability to collect (and redeem) points and miles toward travel or earn cash back that could offset their everyday spending.

Related Reading: