Key takeaway: Merchants that opted out of the 2012–2013 class deal to pursue individual claims are increasingly reaching confidential settlements instead of going to trial. But the terms stay private. Payments industry observers should read this as evidence that the networks still prefer settlement to trial risk. It says nothing, though, about the size or direction of the separate, still-unresolved class settlement fight in New York.
Visa and Mastercard have settled the last remaining merchant claims in a federal antitrust lawsuit over credit card swipe fees. The case, led by food-delivery company Grubhub Holdings, was set for trial in Chicago days before the settlement closed it out.
Three remaining plaintiffs settled their claims last week, according to court filings. They were the retailer Belk, BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings, and the packaging materials maker Uline. Grubhub Holdings, the lead plaintiff, had already settled the month before, per an Aug. 27 filing. Terms of the settlements were not disclosed. U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang of the Northern District of Illinois formally closed the litigation this week. A Mastercard spokesperson said the network is “glad to have reached this resolution” and looks forward to continuing its relationship with Grubhub. A Visa spokesperson declined to comment. So did attorneys at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, the law firm that represented most of the plaintiffs.
The case was filed in November 2019. It involved seven plaintiffs and their subsidiaries, part of an estimated 12 million merchants nationally that have sought damages from the card networks and banks over allegedly excessive interchange fees. These merchants had opted out of the networks’ 2012–2013 class settlement, valued at roughly $7 billion at the time, so they could pursue their own damages claims instead of accepting the class terms. A similar case involving merchants who made the same choice was settled in New York in April.
Why it matters: This settlement fits a broader pattern. Visa and Mastercard keep resolving individual, opt-out merchant lawsuits over swipe fees one case at a time. Meanwhile, a much larger, separate class settlement, the $38 billion Brooklyn pact in the Eastern District of New York, remains contested. A Nov. 16 hearing is set to consider its final approval, and large merchants and trade groups, including Walmart and the National Restaurant Association, are still pushing the court to reject it. Together, the cases show that interchange litigation risk hasn’t disappeared for the networks just because one settlement track has held. It’s being fought on multiple fronts at once.
Source: Payments Dive