Merchants keep attacking the fees, but the charges keep coming because consumers love swiping their cards.

Despite merchants’ persistent attacks on card fees, those tolls have an indomitable inertia that seems to suggest they aren’t shrinking anytime soon.

The fees, imposed by banks that issue cards and the card networks, consistently withstand the recriminations that restaurateurs, retailers and politicians spew at them.

Five years ago, it appeared that the fight between merchants and the card companies had perhaps reached a tipping point, with merchants gaining leverage by way of their congressional champion, Sen. Dick Durbin. But now, financial players have quietly regained ground.

Despite Durbin’s win against the card industry 16 years ago in the form of his namesake amendment, giving merchants a big win in de-escalating debit card fees, their follow-on credit card fight has fallen flat so far.

Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, seems destined to retire from office next January without budging Congress on the Credit Card Competition Act proposal that he and Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas have steadfastly pressed for years on Capitol Hill. That’s despite repeated shout-outs for the legislation from President Donald Trump.

The bill aims to force banks that issue cards to make alternatives to the big card networks Visa and Mastercard available for processing card transactions when consumers swipe their cards, presumably creating more competition that would lower the fees. The legislation has attracted a few more sponsors lately, but hasn’t found a bigger bill to carry it across the finish line.

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