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 15^th, 2012.