Sign In
Upcoming Event
Free Newsletter
The Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association praised the Pennsylvania House Finance Committee for advancing House Bill 2090, a measure aimed at preventing credit card companies from charging swipe fees on Pennsylvania sales tax. CHAINARONG PRAISERTTHAI/GETTY IMAGES
PFMA says swipe fee bill would protect retailers, lower consumer prices
Ed Gruver//February 5, 2026//
Listen to this articleThe Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association (PFMA) praised the Pennsylvania House Finance Committee for advancing House Bill 2090, a measure aimed at preventing credit card companies from charging swipe fees on Pennsylvania sales tax.
“For food retailers operating on razor-thin margins, being charged swipe fees on sales tax is fundamentally unfair,” PFMA President and CEO Alex Baloga said in a statement. “HB 2090 delivers a narrowly tailored, common-sense fix that protects Main Street businesses, helps keep prices down for consumers, and restores basic fairness to the payment system.”
According to a release, HB 2090 addresses a long-standing imbalance in the credit card marketplace, where two dominant payment networks control more than 80% of the market and impose excessive, anticompetitive fees on merchants. Under the current system, retailers are charged interchange fees on the full transaction amount, including sales tax, money collected on behalf of Pennsylvania that merchants never retain.
Along with ending swipe fees on the sales tax portion of transactions, HB 2090 would improve fairness in disputed transactions by preventing penalty fees from being imposed until liability is formally determined. The bill also ensures that card networks cannot restrict lawful pricing practices, including how merchants advertise discounts or surcharges, per the release.
Under HB 2090, enforcement authority is limited to payment card networks and would be carried out by the Pennsylvania Attorney General. Banks and credit unions are not subject to enforcement actions under the legislation.
