A New Brunswick Senator is accusing credit card companies of gouging Canadian consumers and merchants to the tune of $5 billion per year.
Pierrette Ringuette offered a scathing indictment of the practice of credit card companies charging merchant fees of 1.5% to 3% per customer transaction.
She understands Walmart’s refusal to accept Visa cards effective July 1st because of high fees.
“We have to understand that small and medium sized merchants do not have the negotiating power of Walmart,” says Ringuette. “If these fees are high for Walmart, you can just imagine what they are for our small and medium sized businesses.”
Ringuette adds while Visa claims Walmart’s fees are some of the lowest in the entire country, nation wide Canada has some of the highest merchant fees in the world.
“Most importantly I can understand these fees are absolutely not acceptable to our small and medium sized businesses,” states Ringuette. “At the end of the day the consumers are paying these extra costs.”
Ringuette says other countries around the world have taken to legislating maximum fees credit card companies can charge, but so far every time she has introduced similar legislation in the Senate, it has gotten nowhere.
