AGs Ask Credit Card Cos to Drop Gun-Tracking Code

Republican attorneys normal in 24 states mentioned America’s three largest card networks could possibly be violating the regulation with a brand new system for processing firearms purchases.

Last week, Visa, Mastercard and American Express mentioned they’d add new service provider class codes (MCCs) to supply extra details about retailers who promote weapons.

Read extra: Card Networks Add Merchant Code to Track Gun Sales

But some lawyer’s normal, led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, mentioned Tuesday (Sept. 20) that the MCCs could possibly be violating consumer protection and antitrust legal guidelines.

In a letter to the CEOs of the three firms, the attorneys normal mentioned the monitoring and monitoring of firearms purchases creates a “list of gun buyers” and places the data of law-abiding shoppers in danger.

Knudsen mentioned in a press release that it’s “extremely disappointing to see credit card companies cave to pressure from international bodies and adopt this measure that will do nothing to improve public safety.”

Visa referred PYMNTS to an organization blog post that argued the MCCs will not be designed to “track” gun gross sales, “nor should they be.” MCCs exist already for quite a few enterprise, together with bakeries, salons and ebook shops, and they’re used to categorise the kind of enterprise a retailer does.

“However, MCCs do not give Visa or any other payment network visibility into product-level data, also known as ‘SKU-level’ data,” the put up acknowledged. “When we process a transaction, we have no visibility into what items a consumer is purchasing — this is true irrespective of which MCC applies to a merchant.”

Mastercard and American Express weren’t instantly accessible for remark.

Proponents of the brand new MCCs have pointed to previous cases the place bank cards have been used to buy weapons later utilized in mass shootings.

See extra: Attorneys General Ask Credit Card Companies to Track Gun Sales

The new code will pertain to retailers whose essential enterprise is firearms gross sales. Big-box shops promoting weapons is not going to be included.

Gun management advocates, spurred by latest mass shootings within the United States, have been pushing to get banks and bank card firms to do extra to maintain monitor of suspicious gun gross sales.

PYMNTS wrote that California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his New York counterpart Letitia James, requested the funds giants to do their half to forestall mass shootings and gun violence.

“If tracking MCCs could stop just one mass shooting or derail one gun trafficker aiming to flood the streets with guns, the change would be justified,” the 2 Democrats wrote earlier this month.

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