Dead in ’08, Back in ’09: Congress Reintroduces an Interchange Bill
The Credit Card Fair Fee Act, a bill that would inject government into the interchange-setting process, has been resurrected after dying in committee last year. But this time there are more players around the table seemingly less inclined to sympathize with the defenders of the current bank card interchange system.
H.R. 2695, introduced Thursday, has the same chief sponsor as the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008, U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., the Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee. (Conyers has a Republican co-sponsor, U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania.) And many other things are similar between the old and new bills. Most importantly, the new one would grant limited antitrust immunity to interchange rates negotiated between merchants and Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., the only two networks big enough under the bill’s definitions to be covered by its provisions.
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The Credit Card Fair Fee Act, H.R. 2695, John Conyers
