Durbin Files Amicus Brief In Support Of Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act

Press Release

"Senator Durbin is uniquely positioned to offer an important perspective on the operation of the Durbin Amendment and how Illinois’ law aligns with it. This perspective will help the Court decide the pending motion and resolve the case.

“The purpose of the Durbin Amendment was to rein in centrally-fixed debit interchange fees that had been insulated from competitive market forces and resulted in excessively high fees that burdened merchants and consumers. The Durbin Amendment and its implementing Regulation II did so by establishing a fee maximum for any debit interchange fees that networks like Visa and Mastercard fixed on covered issuers’ behalf. The IFPA aligns with the Durbin Amendment’s text, structure, and purpose. Like the Durbin Amendment, the IFPA only applies to fees that are price-fixed by networks on behalf of issuers. The IFPA defines the fees it regulates as fees ‘established, charged, or received by a payment card network for the purpose of compensating an issuer for its involvement in an electronic payment transaction’—a definition that closely aligns with the Durbin

“In short, the IFPA is both consistent with the Durbin Amendment and consistent with sound policy that will help protect merchants and consumers from excessive and anti-competitive fees.”

Source