Recently all the national trade groups (NGA/EMA/NACS) have released articles about ways to apply for a settlement relative to Credit card fees – estimated int totality at 5.4 billion dollars
Listed below are the releases - We urge all members to take advantage. For branded marketers the issue is complex who use one of the majors payment portals or systems to process transactions – please see below for advice on how to proceed.
- Credit Card settlement from EMA –
Status of Visa/MasterCard Swipe Fee Claims Process |
Wednesday, December 6, 2023 -As you have most likely heard, the Settlement Administrator in the Visa/MasterCard swipe fee antitrust litigation has begun mailing claim forms to millions of potential claimants to the $5.4 million settlement fund (the “Fund”). The Fund includes the proceeds of a settlement of the litigation, which claimed that merchants paid excessive fees to accept Visa and MasterCard transaction cards in violation of the antitrust laws.
Interchange Class Action Lawsuit Update What’s new: The historic settlement in the class action interchange lawsuit against Visa and Mastercard has finally reached its end.
NGA members will need to fill out claims forms to get a settlement check during the period of December 1st to May 31st. When claims forms arrive in the mail, there will be a QR code on each form which you can scan to take you to a secure portal that provides your specific data that will be used to calculate your settlement check. NGA has communicated with class counsel and believes the process will be very simple for retailers to file claims on their own without the assistance of outside counsel. No documentation will be required unless you decide to challenge your portion of the settlement.
Once you receive your claim form you can visit www. Please note that a separate opt-out lawsuit that NGA and other merchants brought against Visa and Mastercard and issuing banks is ongoing and is awaiting a court decision on summary judgment. Please contact Chris Jones, NGA SVP Government Relations and Counsel at cjones@nationalgrocers.org |
- Credit card update from NACS - Applies broadly to merchants across multiple trade channels
Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement Opens for Claims
Claim notices began mailing out December 1.
December 05, 2023
In March, a federal appeals court upheld a $5.6 billion antitrust class-action settlement consisting of more than 12 million retailers. The claims process is now moving forward as claims forms began mailing on December 1, 2023, and will continue being sent for most of December.
The lawsuit is about the excessive fees merchants had to pay in order to accept Visa and Mastercard cards after the companies violated antitrust laws. With the $5.54 billion settlement, every merchant in the Rule 23(b)(3) Settlement Class that did not exclude itself from the class by the deadline and filed a valid claim (“Authorized Claimant”) will be paid from the settlement fund. The part of the litigation challenging Visa and Mastercard’s rules and price setting is continuing.
The Rule 23(b)(3) Settlement Class consists of persons, businesses and other entities that have accepted any Visa-branded cards and/or Mastercard-branded cards in the United States at any time from January 1, 2004, to January 25, 2019.
The deadline for merchants to file their claim is May 31, 2024. Once you have received your claim notice, you may file either online or mail your claim to the settlement office.
For more information on the claims process and the settlement itself, visit Payment Card Settlement | Official Court-Authorized Website - Home. That is the official website for the settlement and will include all official court notices relating to the settlement.
If you did not receive a claim form and did not opt out, visit the official website and notify the claims administrator to receive and file a claim form. No organization will receive funds without filing a claim.