Tuesday , December 16, 2025

Peter Lucas

Merchant Groups Voice Their Objections to the Latest Visa-Mastercard Swipe Fee Settlement Offer

Merchant groups late Friday filed written complaints regarding the latest settlement offer in their two-decades old lawsuit against Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. challenging card swipe fees. The settlement offer, which follows a rejected offer in 2024, was made in November. Merchant groups filing complaints were The National Association of …

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Stripe Launches Agentic Commerce Suite With Brands in Tow

Stripe Inc. continues its push to build an agentic commerce infrastructure late Thursday with the launch of its Agentic Commerce Suite. The new solution helps merchants use artificial intelligence-based agents to sell across multiple AI shopping platforms via a single integration to Stripe. In addition, Stripe’s Agentic Commerce Suite supports …

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Global Payments Details the Promise And Perils of Agentic Commerce

The promise and potential perils of agentic commerce as a digital technology are among the trends highlighted in Global Payments Inc.’s 2026 Commerce and Payments Trends Report. Beginning as a form of customer service based on its natural-language capabilities, artificial intelligence has begun to take off through the use of …

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SoundHound Launches an In-Vehicle Reservation System; SpotOn Releases a Report on Restaurant Profitability

SoundHound AI Inc., a provider of artificial intelligence-based voice technology apps, unfolded its voice commerce strategy in the hotly competitive restaurant market with the introduction of an in-vehicle, artificial intelligence-based reservations agent. The reservation system, developed with restaurant-reservation platform OpenTable Inc., connects drivers to a network of more than 60,000 …

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Swipe Fees Are a Drain on Consumers’ Wallets, a Merchant Group Says

Fees paid by merchants to accept credit card and debit cards will dampen consumer spending power this holiday shopping season as sellers look for ways to offset the cost, says the Merchants Payment Coalition. Swipe fees are projected to cost merchants at least $19.9 billion this holiday shopping season, up …

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Instacart Embeds ChaptGPT in Its Online Shopping App

Grocery-delivery and store pick-up platform Instacart is partnering with ChatGPT to offer shopping and checkout within a ChatGPT conversation. The deal will enable Instacart users to shop at more than 1,800 grocers directly within ChatGPT and complete purchases in real time during a ChatGPT conversation. The partnership with ChatGPT builds …

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The FIDO Alliance Launches a Digital Credentials Initiative

The FIDO Alliance has launched an initiative to accelerate the adoption of verifiable digital credentials and identity wallets. The initiative will be led by the Alliance’s Digital Credentials Working Group (DCWG), EMVCo, the International Standardization Organization, The OpenID Foundation, and the Worldwide Web Consortium are also partnering on the initiative …

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Klarna Challenges Rewards Card Issuers; Affirm Adds Pacsun to its Merchant Network

Seeking to provide an alternative to rewards credit cards, Klarna AB has expanded its Premium and Max membership programs in the United States. Klarna’s membership program is a monthly fee-based service that offers consumers such rewards as cashback, exclusive deals, and lifestyle rewards, as well as airport lounge access and …

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OneDine Signs California Pizza Kitchen for Payments Tech at 100-Plus Locations

California Pizza Kitchen has signed with restaurant-technology provider OneDine LLC to deploy its platform in more than 100 CPK locations in the United States. The deal is a reminder that restaurant point-of-sale and management technology is one of the hottest acquiring markets in digital payments. OneDine’s platform, which the company …

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Small Businesses Are Turning to BNPL to Avoid Paying Credit Card Surcharges, J.D. Power Finds

While credit cards are the most common way small businesses pay for a purchase, a growing number are embracing buy now, pay later loans as a payment option. At the same time, many small businesses are opting not to pay by card in order to avoid a surcharge, finds J.D. …

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Digital Transactions