IB 
Union Calendar No. 588 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5546 
[Report No. 110–913] 
To amend the antitrust laws to ensure competitive market-based rates and 
terms for merchants’ access to electronic payment systems. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 6, 2008 
Mr. CONYERS (for himself, Mr. CANNON, Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California, 
Mr. SHUSTER, Mr. WEINER, Mr. DELAHUNT, Mr. PLATTS, Mr. WELCH 
of Vermont, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. 
GOHMERT, Mr. HALL of Texas, Mr. BOOZMAN, and Mr. PETERSON of 
Pennsylvania) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary 
OCTOBER 3, 2008 
Additional sponsors: Mr. CARNEY, Mr. ELLISON, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHN-
SON of Texas, Ms. MCCOLLUM of Minnesota, Mr. YARMUTH, Mr. 
SHULER, Mr. WHITFIELD of Kentucky, Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania, 
Mr. WAMP, Mr. TIBERI, Mr. PORTER, Mr. CARNAHAN, Mr. MARSHALL, 
Mr. ALLEN, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mr. KAGEN, Mr. GONZALEZ, 
Mr. MCNERNEY, Mr. JONES of North Carolina, Mr. BAIRD, Mr. 
MELANCON, Mr. DAVID DAVIS of Tennessee, Mr. KING of Iowa, Mr. INS-
LEE, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Mr. VISCLOSKY, Mr. HOEKSTRA, Mr. RA-
HALL, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. FATTAH, Mr. KLEIN of Florida, and 
Mr. STUPAK 
OCTOBER 3, 2008 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
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[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on March 6, 2008] 
A BILL 
To amend the antitrust laws to ensure competitive market- 
based rates and terms for merchants’ access to electronic 
payment systems. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Credit Card Fair Fee 
Act of 2008’’. 
SEC. 2. LIMITED ANTITRUST IMMUNITY FOR THE NEGOTIA-
TION AND DETERMINATION OF RATES AND 
TERMS FOR ACCESS TO COVERED ELEC-
TRONIC PAYMENT SYSTEMS. 
(a) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this Act: 
(1) ‘‘Access agreement’’ means an agreement giv-
ing a merchant permission to access a covered elec-
tronic payment system to accept credit cards and/or 
debit cards from consumers for payment for goods 
and services as well as to receive payment for such 
goods and services, conditioned solely upon the mer-
chant complying with the rates and terms specified in 
the agreement. 
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(2) ‘‘Acquirer’’ means a financial institution 
that provides services allowing merchants to access an 
electronic payment system to accept credit cards and/ 
or debit cards for payment, but does not include inde-
pendent third party processors that may act as the 
acquirer’s agent in processing general-purpose credit 
or debit card transactions. 
(3) ‘‘Antitrust Division’’ means the Antitrust 
Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. 
(4) ‘‘Antitrust laws’’ has the meaning given it in 
subsection (a) of the first section of the Clayton Act 
(15 U.S.C. 12(a)), except that such term includes sec-
tion 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 
U.S.C. 45) to the extent such section 5 applies to un-
fair methods of competition as well as any similar 
State law. 
(5) ‘‘Credit card’’ means any general-purpose 
card or other device issued or approved for use by a 
financial institution allowing the cardholder to ob-
tain goods or services on credit on terms specified by 
that financial institution. 
(6) ‘‘Covered electronic payment system’’ means 
an electronic payment system that has been used for 
at least 20 percent of the combined dollar value of 
U.S. credit card, signature-based debit card, and 
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PIN-based debit card payments processed in the ap-
plicable calendar year immediately preceding the 
year in which the conduct in question occurs. 
(7) ‘‘Debit card’’ means any general-purpose 
card or other device issued or approved for use by a 
financial institution for use in debiting a cardholder’s 
account for the purpose of that cardholder obtaining 
goods or services, whether authorization is signature- 
based or PIN-based. 
(8) ‘‘Electronic payment system’’ means the pro-
prietary services and infrastructure that route infor-
mation and data to facilitate transaction authoriza-
tion, clearance, and settlement that merchants must 
access in order to accept a specific brand of general- 
purpose credit cards and/or debit cards as payment 
for goods and services. 
(9) ‘‘Financial institution’’ has the same mean-
ing as in section 603(t) of the Fair Credit Reporting 
Act. 
(10) ‘‘Issuer’’ means a financial institution that 
issues credit cards and/or debit cards or approves the 
use of other devices for use in an electronic payment 
system, but does not include independent third party 
processors that may act as the issuer’s agent in proc-
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essing general-purpose credit card or debit card trans-
actions. 
(11) ‘‘Market power’’ means the ability profit-
ably to raise prices above those that would be charged 
in a perfectly competitive market. 
(12) ‘‘Merchant’’ means any person who accepts 
credit cards and/or debit cards in payment for goods 
or services that they provide. 
(13) ‘‘Negotiating party’’ means 1 or more pro-
viders of a covered electronic payment system or 1 or 
more merchants who have access to or who are seeking 
access to that covered electronic payment system, as 
the case may be, and who are in the process of negoti-
ating or who have executed a voluntarily negotiated 
access agreement that is still in effect. 
(14) ‘‘Person’’ has the meaning given it in sub-
section (a) of the first section of the Clayton Act (15 
U.S.C. 12(a)). 
(15) ‘‘Provider’’ means any person who owns, 
operates, controls, serves as an issuer for, or serves as 
an acquirer for a covered electronic payment system. 
(16) ‘‘State’’ has the meaning given it in section 
4G(2) of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 15g(2)). 
(17) ‘‘Terms’’ means all rules applicable either to 
providers of a single covered electronic payment sys-
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tem or to merchants, and that are required in order 
to provide or access that covered electronic payment 
system for processing credit card and/or debit card 
transactions. 
(18) ‘‘Voluntarily negotiated access agreement’’ 
means an executed agreement voluntarily negotiated 
between 1 or more providers of a single covered elec-
tronic payment system and 1 or more merchants that 
sets the rates and terms pursuant to which the 1 or 
more merchants can access that covered electronic 
payment system to accept credit cards and/or debit 
cards from consumers for payment of goods and serv-
ices, and receive payment for such goods and services. 
(b) LIMITED ANTITRUST IMMUNITY FOR NEGOTIATION 
OF ACCESS RATES AND TERMS TO COVERED ELECTRONIC 
PAYMENT SYSTEMS.—(1) Except as provided in paragraph 
(2) and notwithstanding any provision of the antitrust 
laws, in negotiating access rates and terms any providers 
of a single covered electronic payment system and any mer-
chants may jointly negotiate and agree upon the rates and 
terms for access to the covered electronic payment system, 
including through the use of common agents that represent 
either providers of a single covered electronic payment sys-
tem or merchants on a non-exclusive basis. Any providers 
of a single covered electronic payment system also may 
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jointly determine the proportionate division among them-
selves of paid access fees. 
(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, 
the immunity otherwise applicable under paragraph (1) 
shall not apply to a provider of a single covered electronic 
payment system, or to a merchant, during any period in 
which such provider, or such merchant, is engaged in any 
unlawful boycott. 
(c) NONDISCRIMINATION.—For any given covered elec-
tronic payment system, the rates and terms of a voluntarily 
negotiated access agreement reached under the authority of 
this section shall be the same for all merchants, regardless 
of merchant category or volume of transactions (either in 
number or dollar value) generated. For any given covered 
electronic payment system, the rates and terms of a volun-
tarily negotiated access agreement reached under the au-
thority of this section shall be the same for all participating 
providers, regardless of provider category or volume of 
transactions (either in number or dollar value) generated. 
(d) FACILITATION OF NEGOTIATION.— 
(1) SCHEDULE.—Within one month following 
enactment of this Act, the negotiating parties shall 
file with the Antitrust Division a schedule for nego-
tiations. If the negotiating parties do not file such a 
schedule within one month from the date of enact-
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ment, the Antitrust Division shall issue such a sched-
ule and inform the negotiating parties of the schedule. 
In either case, the Antitrust Division shall make the 
schedule available to all negotiating parties. 
(2) INITIAL
DISCLOSURE.—Within one month 
following enactment of this Act, the persons described 
in this subsection shall make the initial disclosures 
described in paragraphs (3), (4), and (5) to facilitate 
negotiations under the limited antitrust immunity 
provided for by this section. 
(3) ISSUERS, ACQUIRERS, AND
OWNERS.—Any 
person who is 1 of the 10 largest issuers for a covered 
electronic payment system in terms of number of 
cards issued, any person who is 1 of the 10 largest 
acquirers for a covered electronic payment system in 
terms of number of merchants served, and any person 
who operates or controls a covered electronic payment 
system shall produce to the Antitrust Division and to 
all negotiating parties— 
(A) an itemized list of the costs necessary to 
provide the covered electronic payment system 
that were incurred by the person during the most 
recent full calendar year before the initiation of 
the negotiation; and 
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