Facts

A class of 12 million merchants filed a class action against Visa U.S.A. Inc and MasterCard International Inc., as well as various banks, alleging that they conspired to fix interchange fees in violation of the Sherman Act. The interchange fee, and the merchant discount fee, were both fees charged to merchants for processing services associated with credit cards.

However, as a result of various other rules, including the Honor-all-Cards rule that requires merchants to accept all Visa or MasterCard-branded credit cards, the rules governing interchange fees also began to conflate. Networks formed default interchange rules that established mandatory interchange fees to apply to every transaction on a network, unless a merchant agreed to some other agreement. As a result, however, merchants were more or less forced to accept the default interchange fees.

PLAINTIFF'S CONTENTIONS:
Plaintiffs alleged that the rules and practices adopted by Visa and MasterCard related to payment cards unreasonably restrained trade and injured merchants. Those practices included rules regarding the setting of default interchange fees, and various anti-steering, exclusionary, and Honor-all-Cards rules.

Result

The parties settled for $7 billion. Defendants also agreed to reform its rules and practices to benefit the members of the settlement class.