Do you remember the segment in the 1983 film, The Twilight Zone where a person befriends a mysterious 10-year-old boy and ends up trapped along with his relatives in an alternate reality created by the boy’s imagination? To us, that is how MasterCard and Visa operate. People are frightened to call attention to the two giant credit card associations’ collusive price fixing schemes. There are dozens of class-action law suits, all which followed after we initiated the first updated case in May 2005, but there are millions of other stories too.
Because nearly every merchant, non-profit and entrepreneur across the globe is beholden to Visa and MasterCard and its 80% market power, many are silent on what is a nearly $40-billion annual hidden tax.
WayTooHigh.com – The Credit Card Interchange Report has been filing news and commentary updates for nearly three years and are pleased to have such broad-based readership – beyond the defendants and their high-powered advisors.
But, how many other businesses were brave enough to do what 30 Minute Photos Etc. [ScanMyPhotos.com] did: actually call and email Visa and MasterCard and ask them to rescind their fees [see profile]? Because they were non-responsive, they now face a multi-billion dollar antitrust suit that, according to them could cause both card association’s to become “insolvent.” Not to fret, as the banks would never let that happen.
When we launched our litigation, the banks appeared much more stable, but over the years, they have paid out billions from their misadventures and executive mismanagement decisions. When a single trader can cause more than $7 billion in losses, our suit is looking less weighty. But, we long knew that we were well inside the Twilight Zone when we decided to stand up to the banks and their payment card pricing schemes.
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