Stop the Merchant Markup

Broken Promises by Merchants
at the Expense of Consumers

Congress must reject the Big-Box Bait-and-Switch and OPPPOSE harmful credit card routing mandates!

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THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE

After the Durbin Amendment was enacted in 2010:

%

of merchants did not change their prices

%

of merchants actually increased prices

%

of merchants actually did what they said they would

$145,000,000,000

amount merchants have pocketed since the Durbin Amendment was implemented

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JUST A FEW OF THEIR BROKEN PROMISES

Home Depot’s Chief Financial Officer Carol Tomé said on an earnings call in February 2011 that the company could gain $35 million in revenue annually from lower fees: “On the Durbin side, as you know the Durbin amendment asks the Federal Reserve to determine what reasonable and proportionate fees should be for debit. Debit makes up about 17% of our tender penetration. Based on the Fed’s draft regulations, we think the benefit to The Home Depot could be $35 million a year,” Tome said on a Home Depot Inc. earnings conference call.

“Consumers are on the verge of getting a great windfall. If this law goes into effect as planned and the fee is lowered — that will be a savings of a billion dollars a month.”

–Mallory Duncan, SVP and General Counsel, National Retail Federation

“There’s no doubt the majority of it (the savings from the Durbin Amendment) would go through in consumer savings.”

–Douglas Kantor of Steptoe & Johnson, LLP, on Behalf of The National Association Of Convenience Stores, The Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers Of America, and The Merchants Payments Coalition

“Given the hotly competitive nature of retailing in the United States, it is a virtual certainty in my mind that the vast majority of that benefit would be passed along to consumers, to our guests and customers of all other retailers.”

–Douglas Scovanner, Executive Vice President and CFO of Target (No longer at Target)

“If fees are cut small businesses will be able to grow their business, pay their employees more, and pass savings along to consumers.”

–Lyle Beckwith, of the National Association of Convenience Stores

“If the transaction costs go down for the merchant, the transaction costs for the consumers are going to go down as well . . . It ought to go down by an amount essentially identical to the amount that the merchants’ transaction fee goes down.”

–Matthew Shay, President and CEO, National Retail Federation