This transparency has supported the other elements of the reforms that have provided merchants with more competitive leverage. I don’t claim that perfection can be achieved on any of these fronts, but these were all areas where improvements needed to be made.
The general principle is that, if you’re paying a fee, there should be some commensurate degree of influence over the decision to incur that fee. Without that, price signals will be ineffective, and competitive pressure to keep fees down will be weak. I’ve gone through that history in order to convey the overall sweep of card-payments regulation, and the general economic basis for it.