Today, Vermont legislators, retailers, and representatives from the Vermont Retail Association and Vermont Grocers Association met at the Elmore Store in Elmore, Vermont, to discuss the importance of Vermont s new credit card law. Passed unanimously by both legislative bodies in Vermont, the law, S.138, prohibits abusive practices by credit card companies. The law will take effect on January 1, 2011. It is the first and only such state law in the country.
The Elmore Store was a fitting location for the gathering as Kathy Miller, who owns the store with husband Warren, has been supporting credit card legislation at the state and federal level for years. She first testified in Washington, D.C. in 2006 at the request of Senator Patrick Leahy and testified again in 2009 at the request of Representative Peter Welch. Kathy Miller stated, 'the passage of this Vermont legislation will definitely help small stores like ours and is an important first step in the fight for reasonable and fair transaction fees to storekeepers and our consumers."
Vermont Speaker of the House Shap Smith, a key supporter of the new law, said The bargaining power that Visa and MasterCard have is greatly out of balance with that of our small merchants. This law shows once again that Vermont can lead the way in assisting small business.
This event caps many months of hard work by the legislature, the Vermont Retail Association and the Vermont Grocers Association to draft and support the law. It will be a boon to retailers, who have long suffered under the credit card companies coercive practices. Merchants often lose money on small purchases made with a credit card because the fee paid for processing the credit card exceeds any profit margin.
Key elements of the new bill:
· Allows merchants to set up to a ten dollar minimum for credit card purchases without being fined or penalized by the credit card companies.
· Allows merchants to offer discounts for cash, checks or other forms of payment.
· Allow merchants to determine which business locations will, and will not, accept cards, without being fined or penalized by the companies.
Tasha Wallis, Executive Director of the Vermont Retail Association, concluded, It has been a long, hard battle, and we re so pleased that, at the end of the day, Vermont legislators showed bipartisan support for a law that assists small grocers and retailers around Vermont."
Source: VRA. 6.22.2010
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Retailers, legislators meet to discuss Vermont’s first-in-the-nation credit card law
Submitted by tim
on