“We support bringing real competition and transparency to the credit card market, and this proposed settlement clearly fails to meet this objective,” says Ari Haseotes, president and chief operating officer of Cumberland Farms Inc.
The Cumberland Gulf Group opposed the proposed settlement of longstanding antitrust litigation between retailers and the credit card industry.
The proposed settlements were announced on July 13. Ari Haseotes, president and chief operating officer of Cumberland Farms Inc., said this proposed settlement will not keep card networks from continuing to raise swipe fees, which cost retailers about $50 billion a year.
“The proposal offers no long-term relief for retailers or consumers from increasing swipe fees or from unfair credit card network rules,” Haseotes said.
The Cumberland Gulf Group joined the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), and other retailers in denouncing this settlement. It has no interest in surcharging customers who use credit and debit cards in order to allow Visa and MasterCard to keep charging these fees.
The Cumberland Group, based in Framingham, Mass., operates off of 589 c-store locations under the Cumberland Farms banner and through operations of its subsidiary Gulf Oil.
