Last week, Senator Tester (D-MT) took to the Senate floor to say he was changing his bill that seeks to delay debit swipe fee reform, noting that had a "compromise." But while he changed the delay from 24 to 15 months, the bill would now rewrite the rules to gut interchange reform. Tester's "compromise" would write the big bank talking points into law. The senator thinks retailers are too dumb to understand this. Please contact your senators and ask to meet with them during the upcoming Memorial Day recess and tell them that this is worse for your business than anything else proposed to date €" it repeals reform. There is likely to be a vote soon so please contact your Senators right away. Write your senators now at nacsonline.com/swipefeesletter.
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held the latest in a series of webinars for retailers to discuss restrictions on impersonal modes of sale (such as self-service stations and vending machines), the prohibition against breakage of cigarette and smokeless tobacco sales and minimum cigarette package size, and free samples. These FDA webinars are a valuable resource for retailers with questions concerning these and other restrictions on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. An archived webcast of all past FDA tobacco webinars is available on the FDA€™s website. Upcoming webinars are scheduled for Tuesday, June 28 and Tuesday, July 26.