STRATEGIC PARTNERS
February 27, 2002
NEW YORK -- U.S. District Judge John Gleeson granted class-action status to several of the nation's largest retailers and smaller merchants involved in an $8.1 billion antitrust lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard over interchange fees for debit cards, according to the Associated Press.
However, Gleeson made it clear in his 45-page written decision that he was not ruling on the merits of the case.
The three-year-old lawsuit accuses Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard International of using a monopoly in credit cards to force businesses to pay inflated transaction fees to accept debit cards.
The $8.1 billion damage estimate is the amount businesses contend they were overcharged by the credit-card companies. If the retailers win, the damage award could triple under antitrust law to $24.3 billion.
The trial, which is set to begin Nov. 27, now includes about 4 million merchants, including such retail powers as Wal-Mart Stores, Sears, Roebuck & Co., Safeway Stores Inc., Circuit City Stores Inc. and the National Retail Federation.
Spokespersons for both Visa and MasterCard say their companies plan to appeal Gleeson's ruling.
Businesses generally pay fees ranging from 1 percent to 2 percent of a transaction each time a credit or debit card is used. The amount of each credit or debit card transaction is deposited into the bank account of the business within a day or so.
Merchants involved in the lawsuit say that the transaction fee for debit cards should be much lower than the fee for credit cards because the cards pose a lower risk for credit card companies.
The merchants say that competitors of Visa and MasterCard charge as little as a nickel for the same debit transaction for which Visa and Mastercard charge more than a dollar.
