Unfortunately, last week's reversal of the debit rule by a federal judge is not going to bring relief to retailers any time soon.
As reported, a U.S. District Court judge sided with retailers and reversed the debit fee rule issued by the Federal Reserve following passage of the Durbin Amendment. The Fed disappointed many retailers when it issued the rule capping debit fees at 21 cents. Retail groups had expected the cap to be in the range of 12 cents.
To quote Judge Richard Leon, the Federal Reserve ran "completely afoul of the text, design and purpose" of Congress.
Unfortunately, the process of undoing the Fed's rule is not going to happen quickly.
First, the Federal Reserve has the option to appeal the U.S. District Court ruling, which would tie the issue up for at least a year in the courts.
Assuming the Fed does not appeal the ruling, the judge has asked for a status conference, scheduled for August 14. Hopefully many questions about the timing of issuance of a new rule, or at least an interim rule, will get cleared up at that time.
The judge did say that he expects corrections of the rule to take "months, not years."
Subscribe to Updates
NATSO provides a breadth of information created to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the needs of the travelling public in an age of disruption. This includes knowledge filled blog posts, articles and publications. If you would like to receive a digest of blog post and articles directly in your inbox, please provide your name, email and the frequency of the updates you want to receive the email digest.
