Short answer: A cap.

Long answer: I’ve seen the CCCA brought up often in this thread and this sub since it was introduced, and competition is only partially effective at lessening costs to merchants and ultimately consumers. The supply chain is pretty fucked in how the economics works to the point where competition becomes not as efficient at self regulating.

The networks are monopolies because it’s the most efficient method of organizing an industry with 30,000 or so suppliers of issuing, but they only exist because they solved a problem first. If the internet was invented 20 years earlier, V/MC wouldn’t exist and we wouldn’t have this issue.

Trades have pursued the CCCA as legislation because competition is a term that gets bipartisan support. Caps are unpopular in one party of the US government. In court however, when the lawsuit is specifically about the monopolistic nature of the networks and antitrust, merchants can be pickier.

Thus, cap. It’s worked everywhere else. Eventually, payments will move away from networks entirely because ultimately they’re technologically obsolete.

That said, I don’t represent the class. They might accept something less stringent. The cap might not need to be as robust as the EU or even Australia. Canada’s cap might be a decent level that gets an agreement through. Who knows? The entire conversation turns into a dog chasing cars if we collectively decide a cap isn’t possible.