News

Another ATM surcharge fee lawsuit for Visa and MasterCard also includes three major banks

October 19, 2011

According to the Washington Post, yet another lawsuit over ATM surcharge fees has been filed against Visa and MasterCard and three major banks accusing them of fixing fees at the expense of consumers.

The lawsuit was filed by a New Jersey man and claims that Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. conspired with Visa and MasterCard to fix the fees consumers pay when they use a non-member bank ATM.

The suit seeks class-action status, and says that "unlawful agreements" among the banks and payment networks result in inflated fees for consumers.

A similar complaint was filed on Monday and also includes a class of Visa- or MasterCard-issued debit payment card users who paid an ATM surcharge fee from October 2007 until the present.

The first in the string of lawsuits was filed last Wednesday by a group of independent ATM operators, along with the National ATM Council, and accused MasterCard and Visa of imposing contract terms that force them to charge consumers set fees.

All three claims accuse Visa and MasterCard and the major banks of leveraging their relationships to charge fixed fees, regardless of whether or not a transaction can be processed on another network at a lesser charge to both the consumer and the ATM operator.

Each of the antitrust lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.

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