A trade association representing some 3,700 convenience stores and other companies has hired a longtime legal foe of Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. to help challenge last week's $6.6 billion lawsuit settlement between the credit-card industry and merchants, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The National Association of Convenience Stores said that the pact, announced on Friday, does not address the core issue of how much control Visa, MasterCard and card-issuing banks have over the merchants who accept their cards for purchases. The Alexandria, Va.-based group hired Constantine Cannon LLP, a New York law firm that previously tangled with Visa and MasterCard over debit-card fees. The reaction of convenience stores is the most direct response to the settlement, which, aside from the monetary payment also gives merchants the right for the first time to charge customers more for using credit cards. Visa and MasterCard also agreed to an eight-month reduction in the rates that merchants pay card-issuing banks to accept credit cards, known as interchange fees. In return, Visa and MasterCard hope to close the door on the interchange-fee fight that has dragged on for years.
