Visa, MasterCard Hit with Another Swipe Fee Class Action Lawsuit

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On Tuesday, a group of retailers filed a class action lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard, accusing the payment card giants of unlawfully restraining competition and forcing merchants to pay excessive interchange fees to accept payment from Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards. The swipe fee class action lawsuit alleges Visa and MasterCard have engaged in an illegal conspiracy in violation of federal antitrust laws.

BSN Sports LLC f/k/a BSN Sports Inc., Kwik Trip Inc., ADFP Management Inc., Citi Trends Inc., Allsup’s Convenience Stores Inc., RaceTrac Petroleum Inc., Quick Chek Corporation f/k/a Quick Chek Food Stores, Wawa Inc. and Waffle House Inc. are listed as plaintiffs in the swipe fee class action lawsuit, which was filed May 12 in Texas federal court. These retailers allege that interchange fees are often one of merchant’s biggest operating expenses, and that they collectively have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in the last fiscal year to issuing banks that are Visa and MasterCard members.

According to the swipe fee class action lawsuit, banks have entered into membership agreements with Visa and MasterCard, which prohibit them from competing for merchant acceptance of the credit and debit cards they issue. The swipe fee class action lawsuit names Visa Inc., Visa USA Inc., Visa International Service Association, MasterCard Incorporated and MasterCard International Incorporated as defendants.

“The principal rules that constitute the Competitive Restraints are the setting of ‘default’ interchange fees, the Honor All Cards Rules, the All Outlets Rules, the No Discount Rules, and the No Surcharge Rules,” the swipe fee class action lawsuit alleges. “These rules have precluded merchants from gaining the benefits of competition as to the terms for the acceptance of cars of particular issuing banks and have precluded card issuers from competing for merchant acceptance of their cards.”

“As a consequence,” the Visa/MasterCard class action lawsuit alleges, “the setting of ‘default’ interchange fees effectively fixes the price of acceptance at a supra-competitive level. Plaintiffs have paid significantly higher costs to accept Visa-branded and MasterCard-branded credit and debit cards than they would if the Member Banks issuing such cards competed for merchant acceptance.”

The plaintiffs are seeking damages, attorneys’ fees, costs of the lawsuit, and pre- and post-judgment interest. They have demanded a jury trial for this swipe fee class action lawsuit.

Earlier this year, Visa and MasterCard reached undisclosed settlements with a group of merchants who had opted out of a massive $7.25 billion class action settlement over its swipe fee policies.

The plaintiffs are represented by Richard E. Norman of Crowley Norman LLP, Jeffrey J. Angelovich of Nix Patterson & Roach LLP and William Curtis Webb and Fields Alexander of Beck Redden LLP.

The Visa, MasterCard Swipe Fee Class Action Lawsuit is BSN Sports LLC, et al. v. Visa Inc., et al., Case No. 2:15-cv-00711, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.