May 15, 2013

Anesthesia practices that accept Visa and MasterCard payments are among the “merchants” that may be able to collect a portion of the fees paid to the card issuers under the proposed settlement in the Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation pending in federal District Court in New York. 

The class action lawsuit alleges that merchants paid excessive fees for accepting Visa and MasterCard because of an alleged antitrust conspiracy among the Defendant.  According to the complaint, Visa, MasterCard and more than a dozen of the nation's largest credit card issuers conspired to restrain competition by illegally charging higher interchange fees for credit card transactions. 

The court granted preliminary approval to the proposed settlement agreement in November, 2012.  On April 11, 2013, the plaintiffs filed for final court approval of the settlement and for attorneys’ fees and expenses.  The court has scheduled a hearing for September 12, 2013 to decide whether to approve the Class Settlement Agreement.

The proposed $7.25 billion settlement, the largest in history, includes more than $6 billion in cash settlement payments to compensate merchants as well as a temporary reduction in fees paid.

Any merchant that accepted one or more of these credit cards beginning in 2004 through November 28, 2012 may be eligible to recover funds.  The amount to which an individual merchant will be entitled will depend on the ultimate number of claimants (the point of a class action lawsuit is that there are too many potential plaintiffs to include them all by name or even to identify them all at the outset).  It will also depend on the outcome of objections to the proposed settlement filed by more than 1200 plaintiffs including Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Neiman Marcus, and Saks, as well as on the number of opt-outs.  Several associations representing merchants are urging their members to object and/or to opt out of the class, giving them the right to pursue other action against the defendants, on the grounds that the proposed settlement does not go far enough in changing the defendants’ practices.  The deadline to object or to be excluded is May 28, 2013.

Many merchants have received an official Settlement Notice in the mail.  The Notice also explains the lawsuit, the proposed settlement, the benefits available, eligibility for those benefits, and how claimants may apply.  Anyone who is not sure whether he or she is part of the settlement may contact the Class Administrator at:  1-800-625-6440 or info@PaymentCardSettlement.com.

Potential class members who have not received the Settlement Notice have the option of pre-registering on the official website, https://www.paymentcardsettlement.com/en.  Pre-registering is not required in order to be part of the class, and it does not commit the merchant to anything, but it is a way to ensure that interested parties will be notified automatically of the results of the September hearing and of the manner in which they should file their claims.

ABC can assist their clients in the pre-registration process.  Please contact your Account Executive if you are interested.

You must file a valid claim to get money from this settlement.  If the Court finally approves the settlement, and you do not exclude yourself from the Cash Settlement Class, you will receive a claim form in the mail or by email. You may also get a claim form on this website when it is available, or you may call: 1-800-625-6440.

For further information, see the official In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation website, https://www.paymentcardsettlement.com/en.