In 2011, the Federal Reserve was accused of ignoring the Durbin Amendment to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act when it established a debit card swiping fee of 21 cents per transaction, a cap that they claimed was allowed by the amendment's ambiguous language. On the other side of that debate, merchants argued that that cap was far beyond what was originally intended by Dodd-Frank, with a U.S. district court ruling in their favor in the summer of 2013. But as we shared with you last year, that ruling was then overturned by an appellate court, stating the legislation, albeit "poorly drafted," still entitled the Fed to the merchant interchange fees it had set for debit card swipes

That setback prompted merchants to file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the high court to take up its case against the Fed's debit fee rules. But as Digital Transactions reports, the Supreme Court opted to side with the appellate court's decision from last year, rejecting the merchants' petition for reconsidering the debit swipe cap.

"The court's decision is disappointing because it leaves merchants and their customers paying far more than intended by Congress," said Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general of the National Retail Federation (NRF), in an official statement. "The court's ruling means retailers will keep paying billions of dollars more than they should and that fee-hungry banks will continue to rake in unearned profits that ultimately come out of consumers' pockets. We will continue to press the issue."

The NRF will undoubtedly continue its pursuit of legislative changes to the debit card swipe fees, and we will keep you updated on those developments as they occur. But in the interim, buyers should consider investing in a new debit and credit card processing service that provides the lowest interchange rate available for merchants while their customers continue to pay with their preferred charge cards.