WASHINGTON–The National Retail Federation today said it has asked the Federal Trade Commission to conduct an investigation into an organization founded by the credit card industry that sets data security standards, saying the group’s controversial practices raise antitrust concerns.
“We urge the FTC not to rely on PCI DSS for any purpose, particularly not as an example of industry best practices nor as a benchmark in determining what may constitute responsible data security standards in the payment system or any other sector,” NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said in a letter to FTC Chair Edith Ramirez and other Commission members.
According to the NRF, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council is “a proprietary organization formed and controlled by a single industry sector – the major credit card networks” and “fails to meet any of the principles adopted by the federal government for voluntary standard-setting organizations,” Duncan said. “We believe you will conclude PCI itself is an inappropriate exercise of market power by the dominant U.S. payment card networks and PCI should not continue setting data security standards through its current processes.”
The PCI council was formed in 2006 by the major credit card companies – Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB.
In a 19-page white paper submitted to the FTC, NRF said the card companies use their market power to “unfairly leverage their brands and proprietary technology through webs of closely controlled interdependent bodies and compliance regimes” including the council. While portrayed as voluntary, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard requirements set by the council are “forced upon businesses that cannot refuse to accept credit and debit cards.”
According to the Retail Federation, the council’s practices “raise antitrust concerns” for a number of reasons, including “general antitrust dangers when competitors collaborate on setting market standards” and “more targeted concerns insofar as they allow the networks to leverage their proprietary technology,” the paper said.
The NRF asked that the FTC investigate the council’s practices in general and particularly their impact on competition. The FTC should also reject government use of PCI standards as any benchmark for data security, and instead work with “legitimate U.S. standard setting bodies” such as the American National Standards Institute, the NRF said.