Arlington, VA - Today, FMI – The Food Industry Association issued its strong endorsement of the bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act, which was reintroduced in Congress by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Peter Welch (D-VT) and J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Reps. Lance Gooden (R-TX), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) and Tom Tiffany (R-WI). This legislation would require more than one network to be enabled on credit cards, giving food retailers choice in payment routing and fostering competitive innovations in services like fraud protection for merchants and consumers alike.
FMI Chief Public Policy Officer and Senior Vice President, Government Relations Jennifer Hatcher stated, “Due to a lack of competition, credit card companies have been able to exponentially increase hidden processing fees that grocers are forced to pay for accepting credit cards as payment. Card processing fees in the U.S. are some of the highest in the world, totaling $160.7 billion in 2022, according to Nilson Report. Excessively high credit swipe fees that exceed grocers’ profit margins force grocers to have to increase prices. These fee increases disproportionately impact lower income Americans, those who rely on cash, and those who do not have access to high credit card rewards.”
Hatcher continued, “The Credit Card Competition Act would help remedy these exorbitant fees by giving food retailers more options in how they route credit card transactions, in turn fostering competition and transparency so that card networks would have to compete for business on fees and terms – just as we compete for our customers’ business.”
Hatcher concluded, “FMI commends the bill sponsors for prioritizing increased competition in the credit card market through the introduction of this critical legislation. We are grateful for their support to provide routing choice for food retailers and relief for grocery customers.”
In addition to FMI’s endorsement letters to the House and Senate sponsors, the Merchants Payments Coalition, which is co-led by FMI, sent an endorsement letter to Congress from 270 associations representing businesses across the country. FMI’s House letter is available here. FMI’s Senate letter is available here.
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