American Express sued in merchants' class-action over 'swipe' fees

Via Reuters: "Ten retail plaintiffs including a delicatessen, fine clothier, florist and furniture store filed the lawsuit on Thursday seeking a court order to block American Express policies that they said violated U.S. antitrust law. American Express restricts competition through its use of “non-discrimination provisions” to bar merchants from encouraging customers to use payment cards with lower transaction fees, the lawsuit said." ... "It is Amex’s rules alone that prohibit U.S. merchants from using discounts, surcharges, verbal prompting, signage, and other techniques to incentivize shoppers to use cheaper payment cards,” the lawsuit said."

Cassie wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 7:22 pm Via Reuters: "Ten retail plaintiffs including a delicatessen, fine clothier, florist and furniture store filed the lawsuit on Thursday seeking a court order to block American Express policies that they said violated U.S. antitrust law. American Express restricts competition through its use of “non-discrimination provisions” to bar merchants from encouraging customers to use payment cards with lower transaction fees, the lawsuit said." ... "It is Amex’s rules alone that prohibit U.S. merchants from using discounts, surcharges, verbal prompting, signage, and other techniques to incentivize shoppers to use cheaper payment cards,” the lawsuit said."

Like they would ever give us a discount for using a different card… IDGAF, what card they want me to use. I will use T-mo as an example, offers a discount to use Apple Card, then threatened to take away our autopay discount if we didn’t use debit/ach… then raised our bill anyway so that essentially I lost autopay and my AppleCard discount. Screw these merchants.

Yeah this is just another attempt at getting rid of credit card rewards. The merchants seem to think if that happens that swipe fees will go down I guess? Yeah, just like when the Durbin amendment passed and they passed the savings from debit transactions back to customers... Getting screwed works both ways.

Saeren wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 12:11 am Yeah this is just another attempt at getting rid of credit card rewards. The merchants seem to think if that happens that swipe fees will go down I guess? Yeah, just like when the Durbin amendment passed and they passed the savings from debit transactions back to customers... Getting screwed works both ways.

Agree. Along those lines there was an article I read yesterday about the C1-Discover deal, and I about lost it when they lumped in Walmart and small bodega in the same group when talking about swipe fees and their motivations. All of us here know we aren't going to save any money if Walmart succeeds in getting swipe fees lowered.

EvenBetterThanTheRealThing wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:53 am Along those lines there was an article I read yesterday about the C1-Discover deal, and I about lost it when they lumped in Walmart and small bodega in the same group when talking about swipe fees and their motivations. All of us here know we aren't going to save any money if Walmart succeeds in getting swipe fees lowered.

If it's Walmart, I'll use the card that offers the most cashback at the time. But at a small bodega, local Hallmark or some boutique owned by a woman I know or am friendly with, or independent takeout place, I'll make an effort to save them some swipe fees since it doesn't cost me anything to do so. Usually that means using my CU-issued, 1% cb Mastercard. I'd use my debit card (cheapest), but no payment processor can be trusted with that info. If I'm going to spend hundreds at a small boutique, I actually go and withdraw the daily limit in cash to use. And Ai algorithms have already identified me as one of the most cheapskate people on Earth, since all my credit receipts show $0 for a tip, when I try to use cash as much as possible for that.

Cassie wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 3:19 pm

EvenBetterThanTheRealThing wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:53 am Along those lines there was an article I read yesterday about the C1-Discover deal, and I about lost it when they lumped in Walmart and small bodega in the same group when talking about swipe fees and their motivations. All of us here know we aren't going to save any money if Walmart succeeds in getting swipe fees lowered.

I'd use my debit card (cheapest), but no payment processor can be trusted with that info.

This is why everyone should have a second account that they use for debit purchases so their primary account is insulated. Apps like Cash App are great for this because they don't have monthly, reload, overdraft, or NSF fees. The only time you pay a fee is if you use an ATM or want to deposit a paper check. My bank doesn't even provide all the spying info to Early Warning despite being part of the Zelle network so my financial transactions are largely a question mark outside of aggregating my purchase info from all of my cards.