Legal
Supreme Court Allows Swipe-Fee Lawsuit in Blow to Regulators
- Suit challenges 2011 rule on charges banks impose on merchants
- Case hinged on statute of limitations on challenging new rules
A customer taps a credit card at a self-service checkout kiosk.
Photographer: Brent Lewin/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The US Supreme Court dealt a fresh blow to the authority of federal agencies, ruling in a case over debit-card swipe fees that some regulations can be challenged a decade or more after they were enacted.
Voting 6-3 along ideological lines, the justices said a North Dakota convenience store and truck stop can sue over a 2011 rule governing the charges that banks impose on merchants. The majority said a six-year statute of limitations doesn’t bar the suit because the business didn’t open until 2018.