obviously it's worth it to the merchant, or the businesses wouldn't be accepting credit cards at all. The problem is that there are two payment processors that

obviously it's worth it to the merchant, or the businesses wouldn't be accepting credit cards at all. The problem is that there are two payment processors that matter, visa and master card, and both charge quite a lot more than it costs to provide the service. Now, normally, this would just mean another competitor would come in with lower prices. The problem here is first that the person who pays for the service (the merchant) is not the person who decides what processing network to use (that's the consumer, deciding which brand charge card to get. ) This is further distorted because the fees that the payment processors charge are partly given back to the issuing banks who then give some of that back to the consumer. so... as a merchant, either you pay exorbitant fees to a credit card processor, and essentially give a discount to every one of your credit card customers (but not your cash customers; the visa agreement states you can't discount your product for not using visa) or you turn away the charge card sales. That's what this law is trying to address.