Yahoo Finance Federal judge rejects Visa, Mastercard swipe fee settlement
June 26 (UPI) -- A U.S. district judge denied a $30 billion antitrust settlement between credit card giants Visa and Mastercard and a group of retailers that would have rolled back so-called swipe fees the card companies charge for a limited time.
Most retail groups, though, criticized the proposed agreement for not going far enough to relieve them against Visa and Mastercard, which controls roughly 80% of the credit card market.
The preliminary agreement would have required the credit card companies to roll back their swipe fees, the percentage they charge merchants each time a customer uses the card, by at least 4 basis points for at least three years and cap fees at 2023 levels for the next five years.
Opponents of the agreement said the deal was too temporary for retailers to make a real difference.
"Thankfully, the judge made the right call in recognizing what a bad deal this would have been for Main Street merchants and their customers," Christopher Jones chief government relations officer for the National Grocers Association, told The Hill.
"It's extremely unusual for a judge to reject a settlement at the preliminary stage, so this shows how far Visa and Mastercard's proposal missed the mark."
Federal Judge Margo Brodie, based in New York, has kept details of her decision sealed, but CNN reported that a memo released by the court said she was "not likely to grant final approval" of the deal in its present form.
"We believe the settlement presented a fair resolution of this long-standing dispute, most notably by giving business owners more flexibility in managing their card acceptance activities," a Mastercard spokesperson told CNN.
