On Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals upheld a judgment against plaintiffs who had sought to bring a class action civil suit against a number of U.S. banks — including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America — for allegedly colluding to fix an ATM interchange fee.
The court of appeals affirmed a lower court ruling that the complainants did not have standing to bring the anti-trust suit, according to a Reuters report. In the opinion for the unanimous three-judge court, Judge N.R. Smith wrote, "Plaintiffs concede that they have never directly paid interchange fees." Without a claim of direct harm, the plaintiffs did not have grounds to bring the suit, he said.
In a complaint filed in 2004, the plaintiffs sought damages dating back to 2000, alleging that banks named in their suit had conspired to set an ATM network interchange fee, which consumers were then charged as part of a "not on us" fee.
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