September 18, 2018. In the largest settlement of an antitrust case in U.S. history, a class of all merchants in the United States who accept Visa or Mastercard as payment agreed to accept $6.26 billion from the country’s largest banks for past price fixing. The case, which has been hard fought for over 13 years, alleged that the major banks that made up Visa and Mastercard agreed among themselves to fix and maintain interchange fees in violation of the antitrust laws. Interchange fees are assessed by the banks on merchants each time a Visa or Mastercard is used to purchase something from the merchant.
Since 2005, Hartley LLP represented one of the named merchant plaintiffs and the merchant class along with the three court-appointed lead counsel.
“We are very proud of our work on behalf of merchants in the U.S. who were subjected to inflated, anticompetitive fees by the banks for so many years,” said Jason Hartley. “That this result comes on the heels of so much hard work and a prior settlement undone by the Second Circuit makes it that much more rewarding.”
The preliminary approval motion and attendant documents can be viewed here: https://www.paymentcardsettlement.com/en