WASHINGTON, DC — This week, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board published an op-ed criticizing Senators Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall’s continued push for their misguided Credit Card Mandates, noting that Visa and Mastercard’s new settlement with merchants proves the market can resolve disputes without government intervention. The full article is copied below and can be viewed HERE.
A Priceless Credit-Card Settlement
Competition nudges Visa and Mastercard to settle with merchants.
By the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
November 10, 2025
Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall and Illinois’s Dick Durbin have spent years pushing misconceived legislation to reduce credit-card swipe fees. So they may be disappointed that credit-card companies have agreed to do so without their political interference.
Visa and Mastercard on Monday announced a settlement to a two-decade legal dispute with merchants over interchange fees. The agreement will slash the average fee charged to merchants by 10 basis points for five years, cap rates for standard cards at 1.25%, and give merchants more discretion over which cards to accept.
Card issuers charge merchants a fee for processing electronic payments and preventing fraud, which on average is 2% of the transaction amount. Banks that issue the cards share the money with customers in the form of rewards. Card issuers use rewards points to attract more customers.
Merchants grumble about the fee rates and the networks’ “honor all cards” rule, which required merchants to accept all cards on a Visa or Mastercard network if they accepted one. This meant they couldn’t refuse cards with higher swipe fees. But customers also tend to spend more with credit cards than they would if they had to pay with cash or debit cards—and even more when they use cards that offer generous rewards.
Merchants have largely benefited from the broader use of cards. That didn’t stop Messrs. Durbin and Marshall from pairing up on legislation that would force banks to allow merchants to process transactions on at least two networks. The supposed aim is to increase competition and lower swipe fees, though it would also reduce reward card offerings.
Monday’s settlement may moot their legislation by resolving merchants’ core complaints. Note, by the way, that payment apps like PayPal and Venmo are increasingly competitors to credit cards. Some small merchants have been steering customers to pay with apps to avoid interchange fees, or giving discounts to customers who don’t pay with cards. This may have helped spur the settlement.
What do you know? Businesses can work out their disagreements without government intervention.