CardX in The Paypers: “Credit card surcharging: a new model for payments in America”
“America’s payments marketplace is home to many ‘firsts’—including the first card networks established and the largest card volume processed. But there is one superlative American merchants would prefer to change: the US has the single most expensive interchange pricing in the world.
Despite increasing economies of scale, and decreases in interchange in other countries, the cost of card acceptance continues to rise for businesses in the US. From 2012 to 2018, the total interchange fees levied by Visa and Mastercard in the US went up by a shocking 77%.
Globally, reductions in interchange fees have largely been driven by direct regulatory intervention—whether in the form of new laws, regulatory threats, or government-led industry agreements—an approach that many believe is ill-suited to American free market principles.
Yet the landmark 2017 case in Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman, coupled with modifications to merchant contracts with the card brands, have created a market-driven option for cost reduction: credit card surcharging.”