Millions of businesses eligible for $5.5B Visa Mastercard antitrust fee settlement

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A sticker for Mastercard, Visa and Discover credit cards displayed on a street cart in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Millions of business owners nationwide may be eligible for part of a $5.54 billion class-action settlement.

The settlement has to do with Visa and Mastercard merchant fees that are alleged to have been inflated.

Visa and Mastercard have admitted no wrongdoing and say their business practices are legal.

What is the Visa Mastercard antitrust lawsuit about?

The lawsuit, which has been "winding its way through the court system for nearly 20 years," according to one lawyer involved, claims that Visa and Mastercard both violated antitrust laws because they set interchange fees, and that they allegedly conspired together about some of the challenged business practices.

This caused merchants to pay excessive interchange fees for accepting their cards, according to the settlement website.

An interchange fee is a fee paid by the merchants for accepting Visa and Mastercard cards when a cardholder makes a purchase, typically around 1-2% of the purchase price.

Who is eligible for payout?

Businesses that accepted Visa and/or Mastercard credit or debit cards between Jan. 1, 2004 and Jan. 25, 2019 are eligible to file a payout claim.

How to file a claim

You must file a valid claim to get money from the settlement.

If you are not sure if you are part of this settlement, you can contact the Class Administrator by calling 1-800-625-6440 or at info@PaymentCardSettlement.com.

You can file a claim in two ways: online or mail a claim form.