GOP AGs Ask Credit Card Companies to Drop Merchant Code That Tracks Gun Sales

Republican attorneys general in 24 states said America’s three largest card networks could be violating the law with a new system for processing firearms purchases.

Last week, Visa, Mastercard and American Express said they would add new merchant category codes (MCCs) to provide more information about retailers who sell guns.

Read more: Card Networks Add Merchant Code to Track Gun Sales

But some attorney’s general, led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, said Tuesday (Sept. 20) that the MCCs could be violating consumer protection and antitrust laws.

In a letter to the CEOs of the three companies, the attorneys general said the monitoring and tracking of firearms purchases creates a “list of gun buyers” and puts the information of law-abiding consumers at risk.

Knudsen said in a statement that it is “extremely disappointing to see credit card companies cave to pressure from international bodies and adopt this measure that will do nothing to improve public safety.”

Visa referred PYMNTS to a company blog post that argued the MCCs are not designed to “track” gun sales, “nor should they be.” MCCs already exist for numerous business, including bakeries, salons and book stores, and they are used to classify the type of business a retailer does.

“However, MCCs do not give Visa or any other payment network visibility into product-level data, also known as ‘SKU-level’ data,” the post stated. “When we process a transaction, we have no visibility into what items a consumer is purchasing — this is true irrespective of which MCC applies to a merchant.”

Mastercard referred PYMNTS to a letter sent to Sen. Elizabeth Warren last week, saying the company’s “rules do not allow for selective authorization of transactions, such as blocking based solely on a MCC. If we identify unauthorized blocking or intentional restrictions of legal commerce, we will take swift action to address such activity.”

American Express was not immediately available for comment.

Proponents of the new MCCs have pointed to past instances where credit cards were used to purchase guns later used in mass shootings.

See more: Attorneys General Ask Credit Card Companies to Track Gun Sales

The new code will pertain to retailers whose main business is firearms sales. Big-box stores selling guns will not be included.

Gun control advocates, spurred by recent mass shootings in the United States, have been pushing to get banks and credit card companies to do more to keep track of suspicious gun sales.

PYMNTS wrote that California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his New York counterpart Letitia James, asked the payments giants to do their part to prevent mass shootings and gun violence.

“If tracking MCCs could stop just one mass shooting or derail one gun trafficker aiming to flood the streets with guns, the change would be justified,” the two Democrats wrote earlier this month.