After a long week of classes, meetings and attempts to complete an unending list of tasks, I try to wind down by going out to dinner with my friends. Sometimes at the bottom of the bill, there is a small surcharge for checking out with a credit card. While these fees are relatively small — usually about 3% of the bill — they demonstrate how corporations exploit their monopolistic power in small but impactful ways throughout our daily lives. The transaction fees forced by credit card companies ultimately harm the consumer, and because there are so few companies in the industry, credit card companies such as Visa maintain monopolies over competitors, forcing users to pay their fees. They drive up prices and leave consumers with nowhere to turn.

Companies from other industries implement

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