payment system, determined based on dollar amount 
of transactions made with the covered electronic 
payment system, shall produce to the Attorney Gen-
eral and to all negotiating parties— 
(A) an itemized list of the costs necessary 
to access an electronic payment system during 
the most recent full calendar year prior to the 
initiation of the proceeding; and 
(B) any access agreement between that 
person and 1 or more providers with regard to 
that covered electronic payment system. 
(5) DISAGREEMENT.—Any disagreement re-
garding whether a person is required to make an ini-
tial disclosure under this clause, or the contents of 
such a disclosure, shall be resolved by the Attorney 
General. 
(6) ATTENDANCE
OF
THE
DEPARTMENT
OF 
JUSTICE.—A representative of the Attorney General 
shall attend all negotiation sessions conducted under 
the authority of this section. 
(e) TRANSPARENCY OF VOLUNTARILY NEGOTIATED 
ACCESS AGREEMENTS.— 
(1) VOLUNTARILY NEGOTIATED ACCESS AGREE-
MENTS BETWEEN NEGOTIATING PARTIES.—A volun-
tarily negotiated access agreement may be executed 
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at any time between 1 or more providers of a cov-
ered electronic payment system and 1 or more mer-
chants. 
(2) FILING AGREEMENTS WITH THE ATTORNEY 
GENERAL.—The negotiating parties shall jointly file 
with the Attorney General a clear intelligible copy 
of— 
(A) any voluntarily negotiated access 
agreement that affects any market in the 
United States or elsewhere; 
(B) the various components of the inter-
change fee; 
(C) a description of how access fees that 
merchants pay are allocated among financial in-
stitutions and how they are spent; 
(D) whether a variation in fees exists 
among card types; 
(E) any documentation relating to a volun-
tarily negotiated access agreement evidencing 
any consideration being given or any marketing 
or promotional agreements between the negoti-
ating parties; 
(F) a comparison of interchange rates in 
current use in the 10 foreign countries having 
the highest volume of credit card transactions 
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with the interchange rates charged in the 
United States under such agreement; and 
(G) any amendments to that voluntarily 
negotiated access agreement or documentation. 
(3) TIMING AND AVAILABILITY OF FILINGS.— 
The negotiating parties to any voluntarily negotiated 
access agreement executed after the date of enact-
ment of this Act shall jointly file the voluntarily ne-
gotiated access agreement, and any documentation 
or amendments described in paragraph (2), with the 
Attorney General not later than 30 days after the 
date of execution of the voluntarily negotiated access 
agreement or amendment or after the creation of the 
documentation. The Attorney General shall make 
publicly available any voluntarily negotiated access 
agreement, amendment, or accompanying docu-
mentation filed under this paragraph. 
(f) REPORT TO CONGRESS BY THE ATTORNEY GEN-
ERAL.—Within 7 months after the date of enactment of 
this Act, the Attorney General shall transmit to the House 
Committee on the Judiciary and the Senate Committee on 
the Judiciary a report on the negotiations conducted 
under the authority of this section during the first 6 
months after the date of enactment and, if a voluntarily 
negotiated agreement is reached, whether such access 
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rates and terms will have an adverse effect on competition 
and how such rates compare with access rates and terms 
in current use in other countries. Such report shall contain 
a chronology of the negotiations, an assessment of whether 
the parties have negotiated in good faith, an assessment 
of the quality of the data provided by the parties in their 
initial disclosures, a description of any voluntarily nego-
tiated agreements reached during the negotiations, and 
any recommendations of the Attorney General concerning 
how Congress should respond to the conduct of the nego-
tiations. 
(g) EFFECT ON PENDING LAWSUITS.—Nothing in 
this section shall affect liability in any action pending on 
the date of enactment of this section. 
SEC. 3. OPT-OUT. 
Nothing in this Act shall limit the ability of acquirers 
or issuers that are regulated by the National Credit Union 
Administration or that, together with affiliates, have as-
sets of less than $1,000,000,000, to opt out of negotia-
tions under this Act. 
SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
This Act shall take effect on the date of the enact-
ment of this Act. 
Æ 
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