Judge Dismisses Visa, MasterCard ATM Class Action Lawsuit
By Matt O’Donnell
A federal judge yesterday dismissed three consolidated class action lawsuits alleging Visa and MasterCard conspired to fix and raise the prices of ATM fees, saying the plaintiffs failed to show they suffered antitrust injury.
Plaintiffs in the antitrust class action lawsuits accused the two credit card companies of conspiring to block ATM providers from charging lower rates for transactions not involving MasterCard or Visa cards.
Consumer plaintiffs alleged the conspiracy forced them to pay higher ATM fees when withdrawing money from ATMS run either by independent operators or by banks at which they don’t hold an account. Independent operator plaintiffs said they were forced to pay more in process transactions because they were not allowed to provide discounts or other incentives to customers using competing credit card networks, leading to higher prices.
Visa and MasterCard asked the court to dismiss the class action lawsuits last year, saying their ATM fee policies did not violate antitrust laws because they simply guaranteed that consumers did not pay more to use their networks than those of their competitors.
U.S. District Judge Amy B. Jackson granted Visa and MasterCard’s motion to dismiss on February 13, saying the complaints failed to meet pleading standards for alleging an antitrust conspiracy and that plaintiffs had not identified they were injured as a result.
The plaintiffs are expected to file an amended complaint resolving these “technical” issues in the near future.
The Visa, MasterCard ATM Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit cases are National ATM Council Inc. et al. v. Visa Inc. et al., Case No 11-cv-01803, Andrew Mackmin et al. v. Visa Inc. et al., Case No. 11-cv-01831, and Mary Stoumbos v. Visa Inc. et al., Case No. 11-cv-01882, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Updated February 14th, 2013
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