Recent reports suggest that consumers spend billions of dollars in transaction fees when they use credit cards for shopping. The U.S. Senate is currently considering the Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA), a bipartisan proposal sponsored by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), and JD Vance (R-Ohio). This proposed legislation aims to require banks to foster competition among credit card processing networks, with the ultimate goal of creating more competition and reducing swipe fees for consumers and small businesses.

The National Grocers Association (NGA) has expressed support for the CCCA. According to a release from the NGA, Christopher Jones, its senior vice president of government relations, said, "This critical legislation would bring much needed reforms to a broken credit card marketplace that unfairly impacts small businesses like independent community grocers."

A summary document on the bill released by Durbin's office indicates that Visa and Mastercard control 80 percent of the U.S. credit card market, which consists of over 576 million cards. Every time a Visa or Mastercard credit card is swiped, approximately 2-3 percent is deducted from the transaction amount paid to the merchant. The document states that Visa and Mastercard have structured their networks to avoid competitive pressures on their fees. Merchants must accept these fees or risk being unable to accept cards issued by all banks in Visa and Mastercard's network.

The Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC) has reported that swipe fees could have cost consumers at least $18.6 billion in additional fees during last year's holiday shopping season alone. This estimate is based on predictions that consumers would use credit cards, debit cards, or digital wallets for about 80 percent of their holiday purchases. According to this study, if consumers used cards for all their purchases, the total swipe fee could reach as high as $26 billion.

Research by Capital One Shopping indicates that 183.9 million Americans, or 70 percent of American adults, possess at least one credit card. These consumers use credit cards for 70.2 percent of in-store and online retail purchases. In 2023, Americans made nearly $11 trillion in purchases using credit, debit, and prepaid cards through the largest credit card issuers.

In 2022, despite opposition from a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators, Visa and Mastercard increased swipe fees by $1.2 billion. According to a release from the National Retail Foundation (NRF), these senators warned that this increase would exacerbate already severe inflationary pressures since swipe fees are based on transaction costs and thus rise with inflation. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on excessive swipe fees in May 2022, Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, highlighted a 2022 Visa earnings call where Visa CFO Vasant Prabhu stated that inflation was "beneficial to [Visa]."

A recent survey conducted by the Merchants Payments Coalition found that nearly two-thirds of voters supported reforming credit card swipe fees.

Another recent survey by North Star Opinion Research in battleground states revealed that 60 percent of voters cited food and grocery inflation as one of the top two impacts from inflation.