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Leon Buck, vice president for government affairs at the their businesses by promising merchants they can save
National Retail Federation, called out what he described as them money on processing costs. "There's a lot of emotion
a "lack of competition" and "price fixing" in card payments out there," Apgar said. "And the way ISOs and agents sell
in a recent opinion piece published by The Hill, a website feeds into that emotion."
popular with Washington insiders. "[I]t's been a dozen
years since Congress last took action, and then only on Will states enter the fray?
debit cards," he wrote, referring to the Durbin Amendment Despite ongoing issues and perceptions around
to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. In that time, Buck asserted, interchange, most experts agree interchange legislation
"swipe fees soared 70 percent, reaching $110.3 billion in isn't in the cards for Congress, at least not in the current
2020 when debit cards are included." session. In fact, when Scott Talbott, ETA senior vice

president of government affairs, spoke on the regulatory
The Mastercard spokesman countered this claim by and legislative outlook at this year's NEAA conference, the
noting that more merchants are accepting cards for more topic of interchange never came up.
payments than was the case 10 years ago, or even three
years ago. "Electronic payments have proven even more This is not the case in the states. Lawmakers in at least six
valuable since the start of the pandemic," he wrote. "And states have introduced bills that would prohibit payment
that's why we're seeing merchants encouraging their processing companies from assessing interchange and
customers to use electronic forms of payment." Buck other processing fees on the tax portion of card payments.
suggested merchants appreciate that credit and debit cards The six states are Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana,
offer "a safe, convenient experience and a guaranteed Tennessee and Wisconsin. Similar legislation was voted
payment." down by the Virginia legislature last year.

Apgar said complaints about card fees from merchants
and their lobbyists may be misplaced. A lot of the added Patti Murphy is senior editor at The Green Sheet and self-described pay-
costs merchants experience come from processor fees, not ments maven of the fourth estate. Follow her on Twitter @GS_PayMaven
interchange, he said. Plus, most ISOs and agents have built