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ATM card users also suing Visa, MasterCard over fees

October 18, 2011

Following a recent lawsuit filed by ATM operators against Visa and MasterCard for allegedly imposing contract terms that force them to charge consumers set fees, a class of ATM users also has filed lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The complaint was filed on Monday and includes a class of Visa- or MasterCard-issued debit payment card users who paid an ATM surcharge fee from October 2007 until the present, according to a Legal Times blog post.

Both complaints accuse Visa and MasterCard of leveraging their relationships with major banks to force ATM operators 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 operator.

The complaint doesn't specify how many people are included in the lawsuit, but does say that it includes "all persons residing in the United States who paid an ATM fee imposed by Defendants and their member banks at any time on or after October 1, 2007."

The plaintiffs are being represented by the Seattle firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and both cases are before U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson.

For more information, visit our transaction processing research center.