After a federal judge approved the $5.7 billion settlement over interchange fees between credit card companies and retailers, the National Retail Federation has filed an appeal, claiming that the current settlement is "flawed."
"The settlement does nothing to reform the price-fixing payments system that has let credit card swipe fees skyrocket over the past decade and nothing to keep them from continuing to soar in the future," said NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan in a statement.
The organization wants more out of it than just money. They filed the appeal on Thursday, January 2, asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court’s ruling.
The now-resolved settlement was the result of a battle that lasted years between retailers and companies like Visa, MasterCard and Discover. Retailers wanted to regain some of the money they paid in interchange fees by charging credit card users more than cash users. Retailers felt that these interchange fees were simply too high, and the settlement allowed for them to regain some of their money.
Now, a new battle has emerged in the fight for fair credit card practices. Despite the appeal's growing support, some lobbying groups stand strongly against it.
The Electronic Payments Coalition released a statement that said, "After nearly a decade of negotiations, the court has determined that this settlement is in the best interest of all parties involved. These same tired arguments were raised over and over during the negotiations and would have been included in the final terms if they had any merit."