The National Restaurant Association today issued the following statement, expressing opposition to the terms contained within a proposed swipe fee antitrust settlement.
"After careful and deliberative considerations, the National Restaurant Association board of directors' executive committee decided unanimously to reject the proposed settlement agreement on interchange swipe fees," said Dawn Sweeney, president and CEO of the NRA. "There is strong concern that the proposed settlement agreement will not achieve the litigation's most critical goal – to fundamentally change a broken marketplace in which swipe fees are set."
"Without meaningful reform, there is concern that restaurateurs – many of whom are small businesses - will continue to be negatively impacted by the unfair, non-transparent system that exists today," Sweeney added.
The NRA is one of 19 named class plaintiffs, which includes six trade associations and 13 individual companies in In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation. On July 13, the proposed settlement agreement between the plaintiffs and defendants (Visa, MasterCard, and many large U.S. banks) was announced and filed in federal district court.
"The current payments system is so convoluted, the average restaurateur has no idea exactly what they are paying and why they are paying large amounts to accept credit and debit cards, which are necessary in today's marketplace. The proposed settlement does not address those issues," Sweeney said. "Restaurateurs also have no ability to negotiate fees or terms of card acceptance, and after digging into the details of the proposed agreement, we have serious concerns that rather than correct those fundamental flaws, it cements those flaws for decades to come."
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