ALBANY, N.Y. -- The New York Association of Convenience Stores (NYACS) has added its voice to the growing list of national, regional and state-level retailer organizations opposing the proposed settlement of the retail industry's longstanding antitrust litigation against major credit-card companies.
"We whole-heartedly agree with the National Association of Convenience Stores that the settlement, as proposed, fails to resolve the core issues that gave rise to the class-action lawsuit," said James Calvin, NYACS president. "This fight is about infusing real competition and transparency into credit-card rate setting and rule-making. Neither is addressed in this deal."
He added, "It's gratifying that the card companies want to pay back some of the billions they've overcharged retailers. But there would be no long-term relief for retailers or consumers from escalating swipe fees or unfair credit-card network rules in the future. Lacking such meaningful changes, this settlement is unacceptable."
Based in Albany, NYACS is a private, not-for-profit organization representing the interests of all 7,700 neighborhood mini-marts and convenience stores across New York State.
Separately, the National Restaurant Association issued a 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 National Restaurant Association. "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."
She added, "Without meaningful reform, there is concern that restaurateurs--many of whom are small businesses--will continue to be negatively impacted by the unfair, nontransparent system that exists today."
The National Restaurant Association 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 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," said Sweeney. "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."
Over the past few years, the National Restaurant Association has worked to foster a fairer payments system for restaurateurs. There have been significant achievements, with increased transparency of card network rules and rates, and the passage of federal legislation in 2010 that included debit-card fee reforms; however, the association continues to pursue changes that will create a fairer, more transparent system.
Founded in 1919, the National Restaurant Association is the leading business association for the restaurant industry, which comprises 970,000 restaurant and foodservice outlets and a workforce of nearly 13 million employees.
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