Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Visa–Mastercard
Visa–Mastercard

Finance

Visa and Mastercard Charged for Spending Millions to Limit Market Competition

Recent studies show Visa and Mastercard have spent more than $80 million lobbying against laws meant to boost credit and debit card industry competition. Customer advocate Accountable. US argues that this duopoly has resulted in too high swipe costs, therefore burdening consumers and companies. The study advocates legislative action to promote competitiveness and save expenses for everybody.

Visa and Mastercard Allegedly Spend Millions to Stifle Payments Sector Competition

Accountable for consumers just published a report. Visa and Mastercard have been accused by the US of establishing a duopoly that stunts credit and debit card payment sector competitiveness. According to the investigation, these financial behemoths have combined spent more than $80 million to advocate against laws meant to let fresh rivals into the market.

Most card transactions in the United States are Visa and Mastercard, so the paper contends that their impact helps to explain the outrageous swipe costs individuals and companies pay. Director of economic security and corporate power Liz Zelnick of Accountable.US said the businesses have used aggressive lobbying to persuade legislators that more competition will harm consumers. She argues, meanwhile, that lack of competition is driving financial difficulty for regular customers as well as small firms.

Zelnick said that swipe fees burden Americans greatly and affect everything from groceries to gasoline costs. They are really expensive. She pushed Congress to act against these anti-competitive behaviors in order to free companies and people from financial strain.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently sued Visa in antitrust claims alleging that the business’s actions discourage financial institutions from working with rival payment providers—a practice the study also notes. Zelnick underlined the need of allowing federal authorities additional power to support a fair market by means of the Credit Card Competition Act.

Introduced by bipartisan politicians, the Credit Card Competition Act of 2023 seeks to force banks to back many payment systems. Legislators of both parties hope this law will increase security, lower swipe costs, boost competitiveness, and eventually help small companies and consumers. The duopoly of the industry now lets Visa and Mastercard establish exorbitant fees that stores cannot bargain, therefore driving higher consumer expenses.

Advocates of the proposed legislation underline its significance in tackling the issues presented by the Visa-Mastercard duopoly and creating a more fair payments environment, even while the Senate has yet to set meetings or votes on it.

Advertisement

You May Also Like

Cryptocurrency

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, has called on the next SEC chair to apologize for the damage that uneven enforcement and regulations have done...

Business

Meta is reportedly developing its own AI-based search engine to reduce its reliance on Google and Bing. Using Meta's AI chatbot, this new search...

Cryptocurrency

Bolivia's Banco Bisa has launched a custody service for the USDT stablecoin, allowing users to purchase, trade, and transfer cryptocurrencies in a controlled setting....

Elections

Former President Donald Trump is putting out a comprehensive tax reform plan that will replace the federal income tax with import duties. He defended...

polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 3.89 1.10%
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 69,231.55 1.45%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 2,504.64 0.16%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.35552 4.05%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 0.510066 0.24%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.092735 0.42%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 70.10 1.75%