In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1720
What is it About?
The lawsuit is about claims that merchants paid excessive fees to accept Visa and Mastercard cards because Visa and Mastercard, individually, and together with their respective member banks, violated the antitrust laws.
This lawsuit relates to interchange fees paid by merchants that accepted Visa or Mastercard branded credit/debit cards between January 1, 2004 and January 25, 2019. The plaintiffs allege that:
- Visa & MasterCard and their respective member banks violated the law because they fixed interchange fees at anti-competitive levels
- Visa & MasterCard violated the law by imposing and enforcing rules that limited merchants from steering their customers to other payment methods (no-surcharge rules, no-discounting rules, honor-all-cards rules). Doing so insulated them from competitive pressure to lower the interchange fees
- Visa & Mastercard conspired together about the alleged business practices
What is the Status?
The Court has granted final approval to a settlement of $5.54 billion. On January 3, 2020, an appeal of the final-approval order was filed with the court. At this time, it is unknown how long the appeals process will take.
Expected payout is roughly 2023, but that timing could certainly change.
Who is Eligible?
The settlement creates the following Rule 23(b)(3) Settlement Class: All persons, businesses, and other entities that have accepted any Visa-Branded Cards and/or Mastercard-Branded Cards in the United States at any time from January 1, 2004 to January 25, 2019.
The Rule 23(b)(3) Settlement Class shall not include (a) the Dismissed Plaintiffs, (b) the United States government, (c) the named Defendants in this Action or their directors, officers, or members of their families, or (d) financial institutions that have issued Visa-Branded Cards or Mastercard-Branded Cards or acquired Visa-Branded Card transactions or Mastercard- Branded Card transactions at any time from January 1, 2004 to January 25, 2019.
How much will it Pay?
The settlement that received final approval will be for a minimum of at least $5.54 billion and a maximum of approximately $6.24 billion.
What are the Deadlines?
The deadline exclude yourself from the settlement or file an objection to the settlement passed on July 23, 2019.
No claim forms are available at this time, and no claim-filing deadline exists.
Additional Information
For additional information regarding the status of the litigation, interested persons may visit https://www.paymentcardsettlement.com, the Court-approved website for this case.
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