Research Article
A Study on the Policy of Credit Card Merchant Fee
1 Optimum Management Research Institute, 2 Chung-Ang University, 3 University of Suwon
Published: January 2012 · Vol. 16, No. 2 · pp. 193-210
DOI: https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/
Full Text
Abstract
The conflict of credit card merchant fee rate is becoming greater among credit card company,merchants, and politicians. This issue is brought by the clash of value between transparency of tax and protection of small merchants. There are two opposing argument to solve this problem, the one stresses the direct regulation of authorities, and the other emphasizes the voluntary market logic. In other words, the social conflict issue of card fee is the result of both government failure and market failure. Therefore, it is necessary to make social consensus for ecosystematic development. In this study, we explore key issues about the credit card merchant fee, and consider the two-sided market characteristics, and propose an alternative of card fee decision-making system for exosystematic development. The alternative solution is network governance model that citizens participate in the card fee decision-making process. The credit card platform of Korea is currently closed unitary system. To make this solution, it should transformed to open multi-party system, and network governance performs the role of acquirer. Like this, the participation of citizen and consensus system for ecosystematic development is expected to be a good alternative to reflect the social value, especially for the conflicting issue of many stakeholders such as credit card merchant fee.
