(e) TRANSPARENCY OF VOLUNTARILY NEGOTIATED AC-
CESS AGREEMENTS.— 
(1) VOLUNTARILY NEGOTIATED ACCESS AGREE-
MENTS BETWEEN NEGOTIATING PARTIES.—A volun-
tarily negotiated access agreement may be executed at 
any time between 1 or more providers of a covered 
electronic payment system and 1 or more merchants. 
(2) FILING AGREEMENTS WITH THE ANTITRUST 
DIVISION.—The negotiating parties shall jointly file 
with the Antitrust Division a clear intelligible copy 
of— 
(A) any voluntarily negotiated access agree-
ment 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 
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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 
with the interchange rates charged in the United 
States under such agreement; and 
(G) any amendments to that voluntarily ne-
gotiated access agreement or documentation. 
(3) TIMING AND AVAILABILITY OF FILINGS.—The 
negotiating parties to any voluntarily negotiated ac-
cess agreement executed after the date of enactment of 
this Act shall jointly file the voluntarily negotiated 
access agreement, and any documentation or amend-
ments described in paragraph (2), with the Antitrust 
Division not later than 30 days after the date of exe-
cution of the voluntarily negotiated access agreement 
or amendment or after the creation of the documenta-
tion. The Antitrust Division shall make publicly 
available any voluntarily negotiated access agree-
ment, amendment, or accompanying documentation 
filed under this paragraph. 
(f) REPORT TO CONGRESS BY THE ANTITRUST DIVI-
SION.—Within seven months after the date of enactment of 
this Act, the Antitrust Division shall transmit to the House 
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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 six months after 
the date of enactment and, if a voluntarily negotiated agree-
ment is reached, whether such access 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 ne-
gotiations, an assessment of whether the parties have nego-
tiated in good faith, an assessment of the quality of the data 
provided by the parties in their initial disclosures, a de-
scription of any voluntarily negotiated agreements reached 
during the negotiations, and any recommendations of the 
Antitrust Division concerning how Congress should respond 
to the conduct of the negotiations. 
(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 assets 
of less than $1,000,000,000, to opt out of negotiations under 
this Act. 
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SEC. 4. CARDHOLDER SAVINGS. 
Any agreements reached pursuant to the authority 
provided in section 2 shall provide that— 
(1) when any fees that a merchant is charged for 
access to a covered electronic payment system are re-
duced pursuant to any such agreement, the merchant 
shall pass the benefits of any such reduction in fees 
on to its customers or employees; and 
(2) when any fees that a financial institution 
collects for access to a covered electronic payment sys-
tem are increased pursuant to any such agreement, 
the financial institution shall pass the benefits of any 
such increase in fees on to its customers or employees. 
SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
This Act shall take effect on the date of the enactment 
of this Act. 
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Union Calendar No. 588 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5546 
[Report No. 110–913] 
A BILL 
To amend the antitrust laws to ensure competitive 
market-based rates and terms for merchants’ ac-
cess to electronic payment systems. 
OCTOBER 3, 2008 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com-
mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 
and ordered to be printed 
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