Bill > S205

This bill introduces comprehensive regulations for electronic payment transactions, focusing on preventing price-fixing and increasing consumer transparency in credit card and debit card transactions. The legislation defines numerous terms related to payment systems and establishes several key prohibitions for payment card networks and covered credit card issuers (those with over $85 billion in consolidated assets). Specifically, the bill makes it unlawful for payment card networks and credit card issuers to fix interchange fees, require merchants to accept specific credit cards, charge consumers or merchants fees for disputed transactions without a clear finding of fault, or penalize merchants for how they set prices. The bill also introduces a significant consumer protection measure requiring credit card issuers to disclose interchange fees on monthly statements starting 180 days after enactment. Additionally, the bill prohibits interchange fees on tax and gratuity amounts of electronic transactions if merchants properly report these amounts during transaction processing. Merchants can retroactively recover interchange fees on taxes and gratuities within 180 days of the transaction. The attorney general is empowered to seek injunctive relief and civil penalties for violations, with potential fines of $1,000 per transaction. The bill also restricts how transaction data can be used, limiting distribution to specific purposes like fraud prevention and customer service, and includes a severability clause to ensure that if one provision is found invalid, the rest of the law remains in effect.

Labor and Employment

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/S205