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compliance should follow almost automatically. It's almost rain very well. In "Making the most of the rules: Passing
always possible to cheat or short-change formal measur- on credit card fees," published Oct. 22, 2018, Evan Weese,
ing and reporting systems like the PCI DSS, but a short- founder of Eaze Creative, wrote: "Most purported cash
term tactic usually leads to long-term problems. discount programs are noncompliant, because they list the
cash price on the shelf and then add a fee at the POS. This
"As a side note, remember that merchants found to be non- brings them under the surcharge rules, meaning fees can-
compliant in the inevitable after-breach audit are guaran- not be charged to debit transactions. Merely claiming that
teed to miss out on any possible safe-harbor provisions a program is cash discount does not make it so.
available to those who are actually affirmed to have been
PCI compliant at the time of a breach." "More to the point, federal law defines a 'discount' as a
reduction from the listed price. ... The card brands agree,
In their Street Smarts article, "Bitcoin: Passing fad or dan- with Visa rules plainly stating, 'A merchant is permitted to
SM
gerously disruptive?" published Oct. 13, 2014, Bank Asso- offer discounts for paying in cash, however, the discount
ciates Merchant Services' Benjamin Abel and Tom Waters must be given as a reduction from the standard price.'"As a
wrote: "It is difficult to find the middle ground of opinion consequence, a true cash discount program must increase
on bitcoin. There are passionate believers and shoulder the price listed on the shelf and then reduce it at the reg-
shruggers. There are those who dive into learning more ister when consumers choose cash. Very few merchants
about the technology and those who do not see any value want to do this, since increasing prices on their shelves
if it cannot help them today. Many believers liken the dis- makes them look more expensive relative to competitors."
parity to the initial reactions toward the internet.
These are just a sliver of the riches in our archives. All
"As industry professionals, we should take seriously any of our contributors, with links to their articles, are listed
technology or corporation that stands to disrupt our in- at www.greensheet.com/search.php?node=bylineDisplay. Share
dustry. We always must learn how it works, how to adapt your favorites via greensheet@greensheet.com, and we'll
to it and how to stay ahead of the game."It's a given that spotlight them in Readers Speak in an upcoming issue.
payment companies must adhere to the card brands' rules.
Our contributing writers have helped us navigate this ter-

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