Retail groups sued two federal regulators Thursday, hoping to revive Illinois’ embattled efforts to ban certain credit card interchange fees, also known as “swipe fees.”

Retail groups sued two federal regulators Thursday, hoping to revive Illinois’ embattled efforts to ban certain credit card interchange fees, also known as “swipe fees.”

The suits mark the latest turn in a yearslong legal fight between retailers, which want to cut swipe fees, and financial institutions, which have challenged those efforts.

The two lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They challenge rules issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the National Credit Union Administration. Those rules led a federal judge in Illinois to permanently block the state law in June.

Banks and credit card companies charge retailers a fee each time a customer pays with a card. The fee is calculated on the total transaction, including sales taxes and tips. The 2024 law, passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. JB Pritzker, would bar those fees on the tax or tip portions of a customer’s purchase. It was intended to give retailers financial relief.

Several national and state groups are among the plaintiffs. They include the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, which has led public advocacy for the law, along with the National Retail Federation and the Illinois Restaurant Association.

Neither the OCC nor NCUA, nor Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office, immediately responded to a request for comment Thursday.

As litigation continues, “swipe fees continue to cost retailers and therefore consumers,” Illinois Retail Merchants Association President and CEO Rob Karr said in a phone interview Thursday. “It undermines retailers’ ability to keep prices for consumers down.”

Financial institutions have fought the law for more than two years, a conflict that has played out in the statehouse, in federal courts, on the airwaves and in Washington since lawmakers and Pritzker enacted the ban.

In February, Chief Judge Virginia M. Kendall of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ruled key provisions of the law could go into effect, a decision backed by retailers. Banks appealed.