Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Visamastercard
Visamastercard

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.

author avatar
Alex
Formally freelance blogger Alex is passionate writer with interest in Finance and Business, fascinated about crypto following news and covering stories.
Advertisement

You May Also Like

Business

A legal dispute has broken out over the US Treasury Department purportedly giving Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) unprecedented access to sensitive...

Business

Blocksquare has established a pioneering real estate tokenization framework in Luxembourg that combines blockchain technology with land registries to provide legally binding property rights....

Business

Telegram's choice to exclusively use The Open Network (TON) blockchain for Web3 services has sparked discussion in the crypto world. While some see it...

Cryptocurrency

The real-world asset (RWA) tokenization market has reached a record high of $17.1 billion onthe blockchain. RWA tokens have outperformed broader digital assets, indicating...

polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 4.54 5.87%
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 96,860.95 1.57%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 2,681.76 5.86%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.707735 7.31%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 2.30 6.49%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.318426 6.23%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 103.32 4.45%