Legal and Regulatory Developments

SPOTLIGHT: EU Antitrust Regulators Escalate Visa, Mastercard Probe, Documents Show
Reuters – June 3, 2025

EU antitrust regulators are asking retailers and payments companies whether a standardized summary of fees by Visa and Mastercard and more transparency on the charges would address their concerns, according to documents seen by Reuters.

The latest questionnaires sent on Tuesday, which came nearly two months after the last batch, suggest that EU regulators have escalated their preliminary investigation into Visa and Mastercard.

The two companies, which charge scheme fees for services related to participation in their card system and process about two-thirds of card payments in the euro zone, have long faced complaints from merchants and payments companies. . . .

Battle Lines Harden Over a Proposed CCCA Amendment to the GENIUS Act
Digital Transactions News – June 5, 2025

The Teamsters Union, along with labor unions in the retail and food-service sectors, sent a letter to Congress Wednesday supporting the Durbin Marshall Amendment to the GENIUS Act, a bill to regulate stablecoins.

The endorsement is the latest salvo in the ongoing battle over the Credit Card Competition Act, which was reintroduced earlier this year as the Durbin Marshall Amendment. Airlines, airline unions, and commercial-aircraft manufacturers sent a letter to Congress Monday opposing attachment of the Durbin Marshall Amendment to the GENIUS Act.

In their letter, the Teamsters and other unions contend passage of Durbin Marshall will help low-to-moderate-income consumers by reducing credit card swipe fees, the savings from which merchants would pass along to consumers. “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,” the letter says. . . .

Illinois Delays Interchange Law
Payments Dive – June 2, 2025

The Illinois state legislature moved to postpone, by one year, the implementation of a law to exempt taxes and tips from credit and debit card interchange fees.

The state enacted a landmark law last year that would require bank card issuers and their networks to avoid imposing the fees on merchants for taxes and tips on any purchases as of July 1 of this year. But both chambers of the legislature passed a brief amendment Sunday that delays the effective date of the law to July 1, 2026.

The law was promoted by restaurant and retail groups because their members are adamant about finding a way to reduce the interchange fees they pay every time a consumer swipes a card to pay for goods or services. . . .

CFPB, Banks Move In for Kill of Biden-Era Open Banking Rule
Law360 – June 2, 2025 (subscription required)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a coalition of banking trade groups have separately pushed to toss the agency’s Biden-era open banking rule, with the CFPB now contending the data-sharing mandate exceeded its legal authority and the banks calling the regime burdensome, irrational and unlawfully vague.

In their Friday motions, the CFPB, Bank Policy Institute, Kentucky Bankers Association and Forcht Bank NA all urged U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves of Kentucky to vacate the rule, which calls for banks to make certain account data freely available for secure, consumer-authorized sharing with third parties.

The rule — finalized under former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, a President Joe Biden appointee — also addresses how such data can be shared and what usage restrictions apply. . . .

Credit, Debit and Gift Cards—ABA to Justice: Debit Card Interchange Fee Rule Should Be Rescinded
VitalLaw – May 30, 2025

In the ongoing effort to roll back Dodd-Frank Act controls, the ABA called on regulators to rescind rules restricting debit card interchange fees.

The American Bankers Association (ABA) told the Department of Justice that Regulation II, established by the Federal Reserve Board in 2011, sets unmandated price caps, forces card issuers to do business with parties they otherwise would not engage with, and exceeds statutory authority regarding net compensation.

The assertions came in the ABA’s May 27, 2025, letter responding to a request for comment from the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division regarding elimination of anticompetitive state and federal laws and regulations that undermine free market competition and harm consumers, workers, and businesses. . . .

Federal Judge Skeptical of Visa’s Push to Toss US Antitrust Case
Bloomberg – May 29, 2025 (subscription may be required)

The federal judge overseeing the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against payments giant Visa Inc. expressed skepticism at the company’s effort to dismiss the case at the current early stage of the litigation.

At a hearing on Thursday in Manhattan federal court, US District Judge John Koeltl asked a lawyer for Visa several times why he should throw out the case now, when a number of factual disputes remain. “The issue of market definition and what companies should be included” are questions of fact that can’t be resolved on a motion to dismiss, Koeltl said.

How the market is defined, specifically which products or services are allegedly harmed by lack of competition, is a central focus of all antitrust cases. . . .

Industry Developments

SPOTLIGHT: Can A2A Go Mainstream?
Digital Transactions Magazine – June 1, 2025

For years, account-to-account (A2A) providers have been eyeing the holy grail of in-store payments—true contactless convenience—but have been held back by closed ecosystems and technical limitations. Now, the Apple Inc. decision opens the door for widespread rollout of A2A tap-to-pay across Europe.

The European Commission finalized a historic deal with Apple in July 2024 to grant third parties access to the NFC technology on iOS devices, enabling them to provide a smooth, tap-to-pay functionality for account-to-account wallets (A2A) that has previously only been available to conventional card-based mobile wallets.

A2A in-store payments have been possible, though the experience has often fallen short—hampered by clunky QR codes, multi-step screens, and cumbersome authentication. . . .

Visa Launches A2A Payment Platform With Card-Like Protection
PYMNTS – June 2, 2025

Visa A2A’s latest update, announced this morning (June 2), connects card-style buyer protections onto pay-by-bank transfers, promising U.K. consumers and merchants a safety net that the market’s open-banking rails have largely lacked.

According to Visa, its A2A platform is “market-ready” for bill and subscription payments, with eCommerce to follow. Built on Pay.UK’s Faster Payment System, the service lets consumers authorize recurring bank transfers inside their mobile-banking apps and integrates Visa’s dispute-resolution rules to reimburse customers when errors occur. That recourse, long standard on card rails, could help coax mainstream users toward open-banking payments.

Businesses stand to gain near-real-time settlement, instant alerts when a customer revokes permission and richer data fields for reconciliation. . . .

Read Payments News Update – June 6, 2025 at constantinecannon.com