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A San Diego pizzeria has filed a proposed class action accusing Visa, Mastercard and five major banks of conspiring to keep merchant credit card fees high. The complaint seeks to represent U.S. merchants that accepted the networks’ cards from Jan. 25, 2019, onward; the allegations have not been established in court.
A San Diego pizzeria has filed a proposed class action accusing Visa, Mastercard and five major banks of keeping merchant credit card fees artificially high through allegedly anticompetitive rules. The suit seeks to cover merchants that accepted the networks’ cards from Jan. 25, 2019, onward, a period the complaint says was not covered by monetary relief in an earlier settlement.
The 134-page complaint alleges that Visa and Mastercard worked with Bank of America, Capital One, Chase Bank, Citibank and Wells Fargo over decades to set interchange fee schedules. Interchange fees are charges merchants pay to banks that issue credit cards when customers use those cards. The lawsuit describes the charges as effectively non-negotiable and says they have risen without meaningful competitive pressure. These are allegations in the filing, not findings by a court.
The complaint also challenges rules it says require merchants that accept any Visa or Mastercard credit card to accept all cards from that network, regardless of the fees attached. It alleges the rules limit merchants’ ability to steer customers toward lower-cost payment methods, including through surcharges, and weaken incentives for banks and networks to compete on price. The suit separately claims Visa and Mastercard imposed their own network fees on merchants.
The filing says merchants now pay more than $100 billion annually to accept Visa and Mastercard credit cards. That figure is presented in the complaint as an annual total; the source does not provide a comparison baseline or independent verification. The case seeks to represent individuals, businesses and other entities in the United States that accepted Visa-branded or Mastercard-branded credit cards beginning Jan. 25, 2019, until the alleged effects of the conduct end.
Merchants Seek Relief After 2019
The case could affect merchants’ options for seeking compensation over card acceptance costs from transactions after the earlier settlement’s class period. Businesses that accept card payments may pay interchange and network fees, which can add to operating expenses; the complaint argues those costs are passed through without adequate competition to constrain them.
The suit’s proposed class is broad, but it is not yet a certified class. The allegations also do not establish that the defendants violated the law, or that merchants will receive damages or other relief. The filing puts the focus on a gap the plaintiff says remains between compensation for earlier transactions and fees charged in later years.
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Earlier Settlement Covered Older Fees
The complaint points to a separate, years-long multidistrict case over merchant credit card fees. According to the source report, a court approved a monetary settlement in December 2019 that provided more than $5 billion in relief, but the covered class period ended on Jan. 24, 2019. The new suit’s proposed period starts the following day.
The filing also refers to a separate settlement seeking changes to network rules. It says that agreement had received preliminary approval and that its prospective benefits would not compensate merchants for fees paid since Jan. 25, 2019. The new complaint argues that merchants in that later period still need a remedy. The status and eventual effects of the separate settlement are not detailed in the available source material.
“a deadweight toll on virtually every credit card purchase in America”
— The complaint
Claims Await Court Review
The available report does not state the filing date, court, case number or whether any defendants have responded. It also does not provide their positions on the allegations. The complaint’s claims about fee levels, coordination and the effects of the challenged rules remain untested in this case.
It is also unclear whether a court will certify the proposed class, what damages the plaintiff seeks in detail, or how this case may relate procedurally to the earlier litigation and its separate request for rule changes. The reported annual fee total has no stated comparison baseline in the source material, so it should not be read as a rate of increase.
Court Rulings Will Set the Course
The next steps depend on the court proceedings. The case would need to move through early litigation, including any motions challenging the complaint; any proposed class would also require court approval before it could proceed on behalf of the wider group. The source report does not identify a hearing date or other scheduled milestone.
Merchants and other readers will be watching for court filings that clarify the defendants’ responses, the scope of the proposed class and the relationship to prior settlement proceedings. Until then, the lawsuit is an allegation, and no outcome or payment to merchants has been established.
Key Questions
Who is being sued?
The proposed class action names Visa, Mastercard, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase Bank, Citibank and Wells Fargo as defendants.
What does the lawsuit allege?
The complaint alleges the defendants coordinated interchange fees and maintained rules that limited merchants’ ability to reject higher-cost cards or direct customers to cheaper payment options. Those claims have not been proven in court.
Which merchants could be included?
The proposed class covers individuals, businesses and other entities in the United States that accepted Visa-branded or Mastercard-branded credit cards from Jan. 25, 2019, until the alleged effects of the conduct cease. A court has not been reported to have certified the class.
How does this relate to the earlier settlement?
The source report says a court approved a monetary settlement in December 2019 covering a class period that ended Jan. 24, 2019. The new complaint seeks relief for a later period and also discusses a separate settlement concerning prospective rule changes.
Source: hn
