Is Credit Card Competition Act a genius idea?

The battle lines are firming up over a proposal for banks to provide merchants with options for what networks are used to process payments they receive using credit cards. The Credit Card Competition Acth is a bipartisan bill, authored by senators Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., that is fiercely backed by merchant trade groups.

On June 4, 2025, four unions representing 4.5 million American workers put their weight behind the bill. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters; the Retail, Wholesale, Department Store Union; the Service Employees International Union; and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union detailed their endorsement of the legislation in a joint letter to Senators Durbin and Marshall.

Unions, orther organizations speak out

The letter stated, "While our memberships are diverse, hail from different industries, and different parts of the country, all unions know that working people are reeling from an affordability crisis on everyday goods.

"This crisis is especially challenging for low wage workers who more often need to make necessary purchases like gasoline, groceries and clothing on credit cards. Many of our members are also on the frontline of retail, interacting with consumers who are enduring increasing prices on everyday goods and trying to maintain safe and amicable community spaces.

"We embrace the Credit Card Competition Act as a means top return more buying power to hard working Americans by curbing the outrageous rise in fees charged by Visa and Mastercard to merchants in the U.S."

The CCCA would require the largest issuers of credit cards (those with over $100 billion in assets) to program those cards in such a way as to enable them to be processed over either one of two card networks, only one of which could be owned by Visa or Mastercard.

The bill has broad support and has been endorsed by a diverse group or organizations in addition to unions. These include the Coalition of Large Tribes, the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the National Association of Blind Merchants, among others.

In addition, the Merchants Payments Coalition, which has been a leading proponent of the legislation, claims it has nearly 2,000 companies and 300 trade associations on its side, in addition to several consumer organizations.

Airlines, plane builders, oppose CCCA

At the same time as the unions were making their backing of the legislation known, articles began appearing on news feeds about how passage of the CCCA would be bad for consumers and the economy in general.

"Credit Card Competition Act could cost economy billions," read a headline from the Detroit News.

"U.S. airlines oppose credit card fee crackdown they say could imperil free flight offers," was the headline Reuters went with.

"Airlines and plane makers warn that credit card legislation could end frequent flier rewards," warned Business Insider.

The CCCA has been proposed as an amendment to the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. The Senate approved a procedural vote on that bill, which itself is controversial, in late May. It could now come up for a straight up or down vote at any time. It has yet to be brought up for a vote in the U.S. House.

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