Supreme Court Allows Merchants To Challenge Debit-Card Swipe Fees Beyond Six-Year Statute

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that merchants may challenge debt-card swipe fees outside a six-year statute, sending a shock to the power of federal agencies.

The justices voted 6-3 on their ruling, determining that a North Dakota convenience store and truck stop may sue over a 2011 rule on charges that banks imposed on merchants because the six-year statute to sue doesn’t apply to the store as it did not open until 2018, Bloomberg reported.

The decision may boost the effect of a blockbuster ruling issued last week that overturned a 1984 precedent requiring judges to defer to an agency's reasonable interpretation of an unclear statute.

Also Read: Visa and Mastercard Reach Deal to Lower Swipe Fees, A Win for Merchants and Potential Boost for Consumer Choices: Analyst

Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan gave the dissenting votes on the swipe-fee decision and said that both rulings mean that judges can rule if "any new objection to any old rule” merits voiding the rule, according to Bloomberg.

"The tsunami of lawsuits against agencies that the court's holdings in this case and Loper Bright have authorized has the potential to devastate the functioning of the federal government," Jackson wrote, joined by Sotomayor and Kagan.

The Fed rule came out of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which included a provision responding to higher swipe-fee rates that said fees must be "reasonable and proportional,” Bloomberg reported.

Price Action: Debit-card stocks and exchange-trade funds gave a mixed reaction to the Supreme Court ruling by Monday’s mid-day trading. Discover Financial Services DFS rose 1.38% to $132.62, while Nu Holdings Ltd. NU dipped 4.32% to $12.35 and CPI Card Group Inc. PMTS declined 2.53% to $26.56.

Renaissance IPO ETF IPO was up slightly 0.12%, FMQQ The Next Frontier Internet & Ecommerce ETF FMQQ slid 0.69%.

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