Card-Free Suit: Visa, MasterCard to pay billions
Also involved in the settlement are card-issuing banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank and others
WASHINGTON:
Credit card giants Visa and MasterCard agreed Friday to pay more than $6 billion to millions of merchants which had sued them for allegedly fixing card-use fees. In a negotiated settlement to resolve the seven-year-old case, Visa agreed to pay $4.03 billion to settle the class-action lawsuit while MasterCard and banks that issue cards and were also part of the suit will pay $2.02 billion, according to the documents filed in the federal court in New York. The two will also have to cut their so-called “swipe” fees for eight months that could give the merchants another $1.2 billion in relief. And they will have to allow merchants to impose a surcharge on credit card transactions, subject to a cap. Also involved in the settlement are card-issuing banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Capital One and others.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2012.
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The plastic money banks are also involved in crimes in Pakistan but State Bank of Pakistan has turned a blind eye.
Except Bank-Al-Falah, all banks issuing credit cards charge annual and joining fee from the people who are given the credit cards, whereas these banks do no charge annual and joining fee when credit cards are issued to the credit card holders in US and other developed countries.
Chief Justice of Pakistan should take a notice against such banks in Pakistan and also called an explanation by the Governor of State Bank of Pakistan as why he has allowed the plastic money banks to charge the annual and joining fees when such fee are not charged in the US and other developing countries.