In the eyes of the law at least in front of the law courts, everyone is equal, once inside the law courts lawsuits take time to settle. Sometimes that is good for the larger organization, sometimes it is not, but over time a decision is made in court.

An example of this is from an article in Reuters, VISA and Mastercard announced after 20 years of litigation, a settlement has been reached. The other side is the National Retail Foundation, the largest US retail trade group and the Merchants Payment Coalition. The issue was the amount of fees a business pays Mastercard and VISA for their terminals in the store or swipe fees.

Swipe fees totaled $111.2 billion in the US in 2024, up from $100.8 billion in 2023 and quadruple the level in 2009.

Besides the money which will be allocated to merchants, the swipe fee will be lower 0.1% for five years. The merchants pay an average of 2.35% with a range from 2.0% to 2.5%.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies charge fees and most of them are hidden from the end user or consumer of the goods and services. Similar to your household budget, there are fees or charges everyone pays and lowering them or even eliminating them is the goal, because then you keep more of your money. The company on the other hand, charges fees and getting the fees correct is more art than science. If the company charges too little, it could easily raise fees and increase revenues. For your investments, do the companies charge the correct fees?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.