Sen. Durbin Introduces Interchange Fee Legislation in US Senate

Yesterday, Senator Richard Durbin introduced S.1212 in the US Senate - "A bill to amend the antitrust laws to ensure competitive market-based fees and terms for merchants' access to electronic payment systems."

The Electronic Payments Coalition in a press release today responded by saying, among other things, that it "strongly opposes interchange legislation introduced yesterday in the U.S. House of Representatives by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) - a bill nearly identical to one that received broad bipartisan opposition last year. This legislation is an attempt by giant retailers to make consumers pay for one of their business expenses - the cost of accepting credit and debit. It's simple: merchants do not want to pay their fair share to accept debit and credit cards, and they want consumers to foot the bill. If this legislation passes, American families will end up footing retailers' bills when it comes to accepting debit and credit cards."