somebody should probably complain about this privately levied 2% national sales tax:
$48 billion in fees that credit card companies extracted from merchants last year. Largely invisible to the public, these fees, which amount to $427 per household, [result in higher consumer prices, and have negative externalities for consumers who do not use plastic] ... federal law prevents retailers from ... bargaining collectively. Only Wal-Mart has had enough market clout to negotiate with MasterCard and Visa, and then only with the aid of a lawsuit... the average interchange fee in the U.S. is now about 2% of the value of the sale - two to six times the regulated rates imposed on Visa and MasterCard in Australia and much of Europe.
:: posted by buermann @ 2009-05-06 10:02:58 CST |
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