Visa and Mastercard Lower Fees for Small US Businesses, Ending a 20-Year Dispute
Visa and Mastercard have agreed to lower fees for small businesses, promising savings of $30 billion over 5 years
After more than a 20-year legal battle, Visa and Mastercard have agreed to reduce credit card transaction fees for American retailers.
This decision will allow businesses, the majority of which are small businesses (over 90%), to save significant amounts on fees, maintaining the reduction level for five years.
In addition to financial benefits, retailers will gain additional flexibility in choosing payment methods to offer their customers.
As part of the agreement, funding for training programs on payment acceptance and expense management for small businesses is also provided.
The agreement between the payment giants and the trade community still needs to be approved in court, but it already promises savings of about $30 billion on fees for small businesses over a five-year period.
This was made possible through direct negotiations, which resulted in significant concessions that take into account the interests of small businesses and address the main issues related to fees.
Against the backdrop of this news, shares of Visa and Mastercard are showing growth, adding respectively 0.6% and 0.7% in Tuesday's trading.
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