Merchants Still Pushing for ‘Swipe’ Fee Reform

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 11, 2025) – The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) said members will continue to push for passage of the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) following a significant boost in momentum gained during Senate consideration of the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill.

“The past several weeks have seen a tremendous outpouring of demand that Congress address soaring credit card swipe fees that drive up the price of nearly everything consumers buy,” said Doug Kantor, MPC Executive Committee member and National Association of Convenience Stores General Counsel. “Consumers, small businesses, military stores, Native American tribes and four of the nation’s largest unions have said the time for swipe fee reform has come. Merchants and consumers have been seeking relief from these high fees for years and we won’t give up until the card industry has to compete over swipe fees the same way small businesses have to compete every day.”

Senators Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) and Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) last month introduced an amendment that would have made the CCCA part of the GENIUS Act, which would establish a regulatory framework for stablecoins. The Senate rarely allows amendments to legislation, however, and senators approved a procedural motion to move forward with the bill on June 11, effectively cutting off consideration of amendments.

A week earlier, the CCCA was endorsed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the Service Employees International Union, and the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union. Since mid-May, the bill has also been endorsed by the Coalition of Large Tribes, which represents the nation’s largest Native American tribes; the American Logistics Association, which represents military commissaries and base exchanges, and the National Association of Blind Merchants.

In addition, the National Federation of Independent Business and other groups sent key-vote letters to the Senate calling for approval of the Marshall-Durbin Amendment. Those endorsements come in addition to support from almost 2,000 companies and nearly 300 trade associations as well as a broad group of consumer, labor and pro-competition organizations.

Credit and debit card swipe fees – which have risen 70% since the pandemic and reached a record $187.2 billion in 2024 – are most merchants’ highest operating cost after labor. The fees are far too high to absorb, especially for small merchants, and drive up consumer prices by nearly $1,200 a year for the average family. Swipe fees paid in each state and the amount saved under the CCCA are available here.

Visa and Mastercard – which control 80% of the market – each centrally set the swipe fees charged by banks that issue cards under their brands, and also block transactions from being processed over other networks that could do the job with lower fees and better security. The legislation would require banks with at least $100 billion in assets to enable cards they issue to be processed over at least two unaffiliated networks – Visa or Mastercard plus a competitor like NYCE, Star or Shazam.

Banks would choose which networks to enable but merchants would then choose which to use, resulting in competition over fees, security and service that is expected to save merchants and consumers $17 billion a year. Rewards would not be affected, security would be improved, consumers would still use the same cards, and community banks and all but one credit union would be exempt.