Mastercard, Visa Agree to Settle Merchant Antitrust Suit
Mastercard Inc., Visa Inc. and other financial institutions have agreed to settle a long-running antitrust lawsuit with merchants over the fees they pay when they accept card payments for a proposed settlement amount of about $6.2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. The proposed amount includes $900 million from all of the defendants, including a number of banks that issue debit and credit cards, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., and Bank of America Corp. It also includes roughly $5.3 billion already paid by the defendants as part of a $7.25 billion settlement reached in 2012. Visa’s share of the new settlement is $600 million, which it said it set aside for the settlement on June 28. Including the 2012 settlement money, Visa’s share is $4.1 billion. Mastercard has agreed to pay an additional $108 million on top of the $790 million it had agreed to pay in a settlement in 2012.
