Washington – Visa, MasterCard and their member banks collected $42 billion in secret credit card fees last year, and the result is drawing attention from Congress, merchants are saying this week in newspaper ads. The credit card interchange fee, along with legislation recently introduced to bring fairness to the broken market of how the fee is set, is the subject of a House Judiciary Antitrust Task Force hearing that will take place on Thursday, May 15.

“Despite increasing volume, more efficient technology, and lower losses from fraud in processing credit card transactions, credit card interchange fees in the U.S. are among the highest in the world,” reads one of the print ads that have appeared in Capitol Hill newspapers and elsewhere.

The ads were placed by the Merchants Payments Coalition, a group cofounded by NACS, to address soaring credit card interchange fees.

The ads also note that Visa and MasterCard “use their market power to raise interchange fees well above what a competitive market would bear.”

Bipartisan legislation was introduced in March in the House by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT). Called, the Credit Card Fair Fee Act, H.R. 5546 is the only solution that would create a competitive market outcome and bring transparency to the broken credit card market by allowing merchants a seat at the negotiating table.

“Interchange is the biggest credit card fee you’ve never heard of,” the ads stress.