[153680] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Dear Linkedin,
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Bonomi)
Sun Jun 10 14:49:58 2012
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2012 13:49:51 -0500 (CDT)
From: Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com>
To: nanog@nanog.org
In-Reply-To: <4FD4E69F.10708@mtcc.com>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
> From nanog-bounces+bonomi=mail.r-bonomi.com@nanog.org Sun Jun 10 13:26:36 2012
> Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2012 11:25:35 -0700
> From: Michael Thomas <mike@mtcc.com>
> To: "John T. Yocum" <john.yocum@fluidhosting.com>
> Subject: Re: Dear Linkedin,
> Cc: nanog@nanog.org
>
> On 06/10/2012 11:22 AM, John T. Yocum wrote:
> > A merchant can offer a cash discount.
>
> I believe that the law just recently changed on that account. I believe
> that what Barry says was the old reality.
You believe incorrectly. :)
Merchants have NOT, per Visa/Mastercard/Amex/Discover/Diners Club contracts
in the U.S., been prohibited from offering discounts for cash transactions
for more than 20 years -- based on my direct kowledge of such contracts as
a card-processing merchand.. TTBOMK, merchants were -never- so prohibited
by such a contract. There are 'restraint of trade' issues involved if a
contract attempts to place restrictions on transactions that do not involve
all the parties to the contract. Forbidding surcharges on transactions
paid for by the issuer's card -is-, on the other hand, fair game for the
contract under which the issuer agrees to pay for certain purchases.
Recently-enacted (2010) U.S. law *does* explicitly permit -- overriding any
contract terms to the contrary -- setting a 'minimum purchase amount'
for credit card transactions, as long as that amount does not exceed US$10.
