Senator Marshall Applauds Key Union Endorsements of Credit Card Competition Act

Washington – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas) issued the following statement today after numerous major unions, representing over four million American workers, endorsed the Credit Card Competition Act – legislation that would enhance competition and choice in the credit card network market, which is currently dominated by the Visa-Mastercard duopoly. 

“Visa-Mastercard and Wall Street banks are charging American families the highest swipe fees in the world — nearly five times higher than those in other countries,” said Senator Marshall. “These excessive fees cost the average hardworking American household over $1,200 a year. No one understands the burden of these costs better than our trade unions, and I’m proud to have their support as we fight to bring fairness and competition back to the payments market.”

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union (RWDSU), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), wrote a letter detailing their endorsement, saying:

“We, the undersigned labor unions, who together represent over 4.5 million American workers, write to express our support for the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) and urge its passage into law.

“While our memberships are diverse, hail from different industries, and different parts of the country, all unions know that working people are reeling from an affordability crisis on everyday goods.  This crisis is especially challenging for low-wage workers who often need to make necessary purchases like gasoline, groceries, and clothing on credit cards.

“We embrace the Credit Card Competition Act as a means to return more buying power to hard-working Americans by curbing the outrageous rise in fees charged by Visa and Mastercard to merchants in the United States.

“In the past decade, the fees charged by the two dominant credit card companies have nearly tripled. And because almost 90% of Visa/Mastercard credit cards are issued by the largest 10 banks, some of whom also sit on the boards of Visa and Mastercard, arguments about the risk of swipe fee reform to small community banks ring hollow.”

Read the full letter here. 

Background:

• Building off of debit card competition reforms enacted by Congress in 2010, the bill would direct the Federal Reserve to ensure that the largest credit card-issuing banks offer a choice of at least two networks over which an electronic credit transaction may be processed. 
• Visa and Mastercard wield enormous market power in credit cards; according to the Federal Reserve, they account for nearly 576 million cards, or about 83 percent of general-purpose credit cards.  
• Visa’s and Mastercard’s market power and network structure have enabled them to impose fees on U.S. merchants that are among the world’s highest, charging a total of $93 billion in U.S. merchant credit card fees in 2022. 
• These fees include interchange or swipe fees, which Visa and Mastercard require merchants to pay to issuing banks, as well as network fees that Visa and Mastercard require merchants to pay directly to them.  
• Consumers ultimately pay for these fees in the price of the goods and services they buy.
• The legislation is estimated to save merchants and consumers $15 billion each year.

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