According to Sunday's New York Times, reporters Matt Richtel and Bob Tedeschim (June 17) have a high-profile front page story explaining that the decades' "hypergrowth" of ecommerce purchasing has realized a "dramatic" slowdown. The article, however, does not profile highly innovative companies, such as ScanMyPhotos.com, which created an entirely new business model for super-speedy high-speed photo scanning. But, the story does raise questions that if ecommerce business is slowing, what does that mean for the two leading credit card associations? With nearly all ecommerce and online business beholdened to electronic payments, if there is a significant slowdown from other sectors, what impact will that have on companies like Visa® and MasterCard®. If there is a slowdown, will they simply wield their (and its member banks) unbridled market power to raise interchange fees again to counter any adverse effects to its revenue stream?
ScanMyPhotos.com is owned by 30 Minute Photos Etc., the lead plaintiff in the merchant interchange litigation against Visa, MasterCard and its member banks.
[Commentary: WayTooHigh.com, via NYT's article]
