Supreme court allows swipe-fee lawsuit in blow to regulators

She added that “Congress still has a chance to address this absurdity and forestall the coming chaos. It can opt to correct this court’s mistake by clarifying that the statutes it enacts are designed to facilitate the functioning of agencies, not to hobble them.”

The Fed rule was a product of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which included a provision responding to increases in swipe fee rates, also known as interchange fees. The law said fees must be “reasonable and proportional” and instructed the Fed to craft an implementing regulation.

The following year the Fed capped fees at 21 cents per transaction plus 0.05% of the transaction’s value. Merchant trade groups quickly sued, contending that the fee cap was too high, and a federal appeals court in Washington largely upheld the rule.

Merchant trade groups in North Dakota filed another suit in 2021, eventually adding the convenience store, Corner Post Inc., as a plaintiff. Corner Post has operated its store and truck stop in Watford City, North Dakota, since March 2018.

Business groups

A federal district court and then a federal appeals court tossed out the suit, saying the six-year statute of limitations began to run when the rule was issued in 2011.

Corner Post was backed at the Supreme Court by business groups, anti-government-regulation advocates and Republican-led states. They contended the six-year clock doesn’t start until a particular plaintiff is able to sue – in 2018, in Corner Post’s case.

The Biden administration urged the Supreme Court to reject the lawsuit, saying it would undermine the clarity the six-year statute of limitations is designed to provide.

The case is Corner Post v. Board of Governors, 22-1008.