Marking a major victory for retailers, a federal appeals court today threw out the $7.25 billion antitrust settlement that Visa and MasterCard had reached with millions of retailers over the high swipe fees that retailers pay each time a customer uses a credit card ruling that it was unfair to retailers who stood to receive no payments and little or no benefit.
06-30-2016 Recognizing the growing and unacceptable problem with chargebacks, Visa has announced modifications to EMV certification and chargeback requirements, and shortly thereafter MasterCard and American Express followed suit. These announcements undoubtedly came in response to growing pressure from retailers and their advocates that the EMV liability shift has resulted in an excessive and unfair increase in chargebacks that retailers have absorbed, often with no viable method for avoiding them.
06-26-2016 Home Depot Inc. has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard, adding to claims from a previous lawsuit alleging that retailers pay too much in swipe fees by now questioning chip-based cards’ effectiveness in reducing fraud without PIN authentication.
06-20-2016 Wal-Mart has sued credit card company Visa, alleging the company is forcing the retailer to use a less-secure “signature” method for verifying debit cards in order to route transactions through Visa’s own networks to boost profits.
05-16-2016 NATSO served as one of several plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against VISA and MasterCard (In re Payment Card Interchange Fee & Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation). This lawsuit was brought on behalf of merchants who accepted those companies’ payment cards in the United States since January 1, 2004. Over NATSO’s objection, the district court approved a settlement of that class action for a cash payment and an injunction requiring VISA and MasterCard to change some of their rules for accepting their payment cards.
11-30-2015 A federal judge rejected a settlement between American Express and merchants over credit card fees after discovering that the merchants’ lawyer inappropriately communicated privileged details of the case with an attorney for MasterCard. The decision, which could have ripple effects for another settlement agreement between many of the same merchants and MasterCard and Visa, means that the merchants and Amex will have to renegotiate the deal or possibly go to trial.
08-05-2015 If there was ever a year when NATSO was challenged on all of its major issues, it was 2012. NATSO’s top issues–rest area commercialization, tolling and credit card swipe fees–were all in play throughout the year, with a big test early in the year on the rest area commercialization issue. And though we passed the test, there is always more to be done. But NATSO moves into 2013 with optimism and momentum in a positive direction, committed to continue protecting the interests of Interstate-based businesses.
12-24-2012 Despite unprecedented opposition from merchants, on Friday a federal judge gave preliminary approval of a $7.2 billion settlement of litigation against Visa, MasterCard and several large banks.
11-12-2012 NATSO last week joined a majority of the named plaintiffs in announcing their opposition to the proposed antitrust settlement agreement with Visa, MasterCard and some of the largest banks that were filed on Oct. 12.
10-15-2012 NATSO joined a group of associations representing retailers to highlight the reasons behind the growing opposition to the proposed settlement of the long-standing antitrust lawsuit filed by merchants against Visa, MasterCard and the nation’s largest banks.
09-24-2012 GAO last week confirmed that the debit fee reform implemented Oct. 1, 2011, has helped community banks and credit unions.
09-24-2012