WASHINGTON (KFGO) – A truck stop in Watford City has brought its case challenging regulations around burdensome debit card fees all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
The Corner Post Truck Stop and Convenience store is petitioning the nation’s highest court to review a decision of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals that its challenge to the Federal Reserve’s debit-card fees cap – which they say creates enormous harm to their business – is invalid.
The 8th Circuit decided in December that the six-year statute of limitations placed on objecting to federal agency rules was up before The Corner Post brought its suit, making the Fed’s fee cap ineligible to a challenge.
The fee cap rule was issued by the Fed in 2011. The Corner Post opened for business in March of 2018. It argued that, because the business did not exist until then, the 8th Circuit’s interpretation is unfair and the six-year statute of limitations clock should start when their first transaction took place in 2018, not when the rule was made.
The Fed’s rule capped the fees banks can charge merchants for processing debit-card transactions at 21 cents, but The Corner Post says the cap was excessive. The suit alleged that banks have made billions in swipe fee profits at the expense of consumers and retailers as a result.
The Corner Post’s petition for cert was placed on the Supreme Court’s docket in April. A cert petition asks the high court to review a lower court’s ruling in a case. The Court has full discretion over whether to grant cert and four justices must vote to do so in order for the Supreme Court to hear the case. The government has until mid-June to file their response in The Corner Post’s case.
