Welch pushes Credit Card Competition Act

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Vermont Sen. Peter Welch is taking aim at credit card fees.

Welch spoke on the Senate floor to urge his colleagues to pass the Credit Card Competition Act.

The goal of the act is to increase competition in the credit card market to bring down costs for small businesses.

According to Welch, a recent report says that the two companies in the market, Visa and Mastercard, have increased fees for merchants and customers.

“Where there is a monopoly—or in this case a duopoly—and there’s this massive pricing power that Visa and Mastercard have, they’re doing what monopolies do and duopolies do: they abuse that pricing power and they stick it to our merchants. It was $33 billion in charges, it’s $93 billion in charges now,” said Welch, D-Vermont.

Welch says the government needs to do more to protect American consumers and vendors from rising fees.

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