PAYMENT CARD INTERCHANGE FEE SETTLEMENT
The settlement resolves allegations that VISA, MasterCard and their issuing banks violated the law by charging excessive interchange fees to merchants. Below, please find a brief timeline about the settlement:
- December 13, 2019: The District Court granted final approval to the amended $5.54 billion Payment Card settlement. Numerous appeals were subsequently filed that objected to the settlement on a variety of grounds, including which entity is owed the settlement funds in certain franchisor-franchisee relationships.
- July 12, 2022: The Second Circuit remanded appeals pertaining to this issue back to the District Court to determine whether that in the event that final judgment was overturned on this basis, there is no just reason for the delay in the appeal of all other issues.
- July 18, 2022: The District Court found that because determining the franchisor-franchisee dispute won’t impact how much other class members are paid, it wouldn’t be fair to delay relief to the rest of the class on the basis of this issue.
- March 15, 2023: The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed all aspects of the District Court’s final approval order save one; the Appellate Court directed the district court to reduce service awards to class representatives to the extent that its size was increased by time spent in lobbying efforts that would not increase the recovery of damages. At this time, it is unknown if any party will pursue further appeals. Additional details will be provided as they become available.
While no official claim form is available and claimants do not need to sign up with any third-party service in order to participate in monetary relief, many eligible companies choose to outsource the claims process to companies like Class Action Capital and avoid the responsibility of managing the process internally, such as deficiencies or audits, and the potential difficulty of understanding what data is provided by the defendants, how the data, or lack thereof, applies to your company’s claim, as well as what additional information can be provided to ensure a better positioned claim.
The Class Administrator will have data from Defendants and others which it expects will permit it to estimate the total value of interchange fees attributable to each authorized claimant. No-cost assistance will be available from the Class Administrator and Class Counsel during the claims-filing period. The Court-approved website is www.paymentcardsettlement.com. If the data is not reasonably available to estimate a class member’s Interchange Fees Paid or if the value established by the Class Administrator is disputed by the class member, claimants will be required to submit information in support of their claim.
Class Action Capital can assist with this process by organizing the ways data is tracked by your organization and presenting that to the Class Administrator in a concise report to get an understanding of what matches. If there is any discrepancy between the information the Class Administrator has and what your organization believes to be correct, Class Action Capital can establish an argument and negotiate with the Class Administrator on your behalf.