A U.S. district judge denied a request for preliminary approval of a $30 billion antitrust settlement in which credit card companies Mastercard and Visa agreed to cap fees charged to merchants that accept their credit and debit cards. Brooklyn Judge Margo Brodie said she was unlikely to grant final approval to the settlement.
From here, Visa and Mastercard may have to work on negotiating another settlement with merchants, which must happen before June 28, or go to trialMerchants and trade groups, including the National Retail Federation, were against the settlement because the card fees would stay too high and the card companies would still have too much control over transactions.
Litigation on swipe fees, also known as interchange fees, began in 2005. The fees, which totaled about $72 billion in 2023, typically account for 1.5% to 3.5% of each transaction and generate profits for banks and other card companies. The settlement was to decrease the average swipe fee to at least 0.04 percentage point for three years and remain at least 0.07 percentage point below the current average for five years.
