CIPMA Applauds The Competition Bureau Investigating Credit Card Companies

March 25, 2009

The Competition Bureau of Canada announced today that it is investigating whether credit card networks such as Visa and MasterCard are violating the law by charging excessive fees to businesses for transactions following thousands of complaints across the country.

The investigation is being conducted under the “abuse of dominance” provisions of the Competition Act. The investigation was announced by Richard Taylor, Deputy Commissioner of Competition at the Senate committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce on Parliament Hill. The Committee began hearings this week into the credit and debit card systems in Canada.

Independent fuel marketers, represented by CIPMA, have experienced unilateral increases in the fees they are charged by both MasterCard and Visa, and marketers have been told by their providers that these fees will continue to increase.

Although fuel marketers see value in accepting credit cards, the fees, which are non- negotiable, appear to be out of line with costs. As well, Canadian credit card interchange fees are significantly higher than fees charged in some other countries, some of whom have resorted to regulation.

CIPMA has been working with a coalition of retailing companies, spearheaded by the Retail Council of Canada and were instrumental in getting the Senate Banking Committee and the House of Commons Industry Committee to conduct investigations. CIPMA will be appearing before both Committees to push for regulation.

For more information, please contact
Jane Savage, President and CEO
CIPMA
416-691-9292
jsavage@cipma.org

Industry-leading networking events

Each year, we offer the entire fuel marketing industry two opportunities to find out what’s new, what’s coming, what CIPMA is doing about it, and how best to prepare for regulatory changes.

CIPMA is the proud host of the Canadian Fuel Marketing Conference. The next conference will be in Toronto April 10-12, 2017. The CIPMA Golf Challenge is held in September. Both are all-industry events open to members and non-members alike and offer marketers, suppliers and other stakeholders the chance to network.

The President and the Board of Directors hold an annual Eastern and Western Member’s education and networking reception and dinner. Invitations are sent to CIPMA members and industry friends alike for a smaller scale networking event with more focus on the region.