This summary is based on SRG’s review of publicly available documents. The court granted the settlement final approval on December 13, 2019.
Overview
Plaintiffs allege that, between January 1, 2004 and the January 25, 2019,
Defendants Visa, MasterCard and several banks including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup conspired to artificially inflate the prices of interchange fees that merchants' acquiring banks pay to customers' issuing banks in a credit or debit card transaction. Since the interchange fees are inflated, the discount fees merchants pay to accept card payments are in turn artificially high, and various rules prevent merchants from challenging the inflated fees.
What is interchange?
Interchange is a fee paid by a merchant's bank (also known as the acquiring bank) to the cardholder's bank (the issuing bank) to compensate the issuing bank for a portion of the risks and costs it incurs.
Class
The eligible class consists of all persons, businesses and other entities that accepted Visa and/or MasterCard credit or debit cards in the United States from January 1, 2004 to January 25, 2019.
Filing Deadline:
Not yet established;
Claim forms are not yet available
SRG is not affiliated with the official claims administrator, class counsel or any party in the case. Settlement Recovery Group, LLC (SRG) is a third party service that can be hired to file and track claims. We specialize in helping companies file claims to obtain their share of settlement money from class action lawsuits once a settlement has been reached. Our services are voluntary and are not required to file a claim. No-cost assistance will be available from the Class Administrator and Class Counsel during any claims-filing period. Official documents and information on the case can be found on the Court-approved case website www.paymentcardsettlement.com. This summary is not and should not be construed as legal, tax or other professional advice.
