The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York has granted preliminary approval of a $38 billion settlement between Visa, Mastercard and nearly 12 million merchants over “swiping fees” when processing credit cards.
The litigation between the global credit card giants and merchants dates back to 2005, stemming from allegations that fees charged to merchants for accepting credit card payments were too high and that merchants were unable to reject certain cards carrying higher fees.
The decision follows a 2024 rejection of a proposed $30 billion settlement deemed insufficient.
According to a National Retail Federation (NRF) webpage on swipe fees, retailers pay a percentage of every credit card transaction to card networks and issuing banks. The group says these fees have tripled since 2009 and maintains that the United States now has the highest such fees in the world….