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A settlement was announced last week in a 2005 lawsuit that charged MasterCard, Visa, and major banks with engaging in price-fixing to charge high fees for credit card payment processing. The case, which was brought in federal court on behalf of approximately seven million merchants, also charged the payment processors with unfairly banning stores from requiring customers to use other less-expensive methods of payments.
Among the key points in the proposed settlement, which still must be approved by the court:
Court approval of the settlement is not expected until the end of the year or later.
Opposition to the settlement has already been voiced by the National Association of Convenience Stores, which has hired a law firm to challenge the settlement on the grounds that it doesn’t address the central issue of how much control Visa, MasterCard, and the banks have over the merchants that accept their cards for purchases, the Wall Street Journal [2] reported.
Watch for continuing coverage in upcoming editions of BTW.
Links:
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/business/mastercard-and-visa-settle-antitrust-suit.html
[2] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303612804577529264101068238.html