Mark Ishman, a North Carolina lawyer, started a group called Triangle Law Center in February of this year. This month Ishman's Triangle filed a class action lawsuit agains the major credit card firms for violating "Section 1962(c) and 1962(d) of the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act, Section 16 of the Clayton Act, Section 2(a) of the Robinson-Patman Act" among other things.
I believe this is in direct response to something that small web merchants have been dealing with, unhappily, for a long time- the liability for chargebacks. If a consumer claims non-delivery of an item ordered over the web, because it is considered a CNP (cardholder not present) transaction, the merchant is responsible not only for the cost of goods but must also pay the card issuing banks a chargeback fee of, generally, $25. The ensuing revenue loss can add up for a small merchant pretty quickly.
I did a webcast for ITWorld that talks about this issue and some mitigation techniques. It can be accessed here: http://smallbusiness.itworld.com/Webcasts/.
Posted by Diana at May 23, 2003 10:28 AM