A North Dakota federal judge says the Federal Reserve Board defied the law by allowing banks to benefit from inflated debit card transaction fees for nearly 15 years.

The fees, which apply every time someone makes a debit card purchase, are meant to compensate banks for the cost of processing the transactions.

These fees went unregulated for decades. After learning banks were making billions annually from the transaction fees, Congress in 2010 passed a law instructing the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to make sure they are “reasonable and proportional” to what debit card transactions really cost.

The Federal Reserve Board adopted a rule implementing the law in 2011.

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor in a Wednesday order concluded that the board’s rule missed the mark in two

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