U.S. merchants, Visa, Mastercard and other financial institutions announced a settlement Tuesday in a lawsuit dating back to 2005 over credit card interchange fees. Visa and Mastercard will cap credit card interchange fees into 2029.
America’s Credit Unions is analyzing the settlement, but has concerns with several areas that could impact credit unions, including:
- Merchants would be permitted to surcharge Visa or Mastercard branded credit cards up to 3%;
- Visa and MasterCard would modify their “no-discounting” and “non-discrimination” rules to allow merchants to offer discounts to customers based on the credit or debit card issuer;
- Modification of the “honor all cards” rules to indicate that a merchant may accept and enable some but not all digital wallets and steer consumers to specific cards within the digital wallet; and
- Reduction in the interchange rate paid by merchants for the next five years.
The settlement requires approval by the Eastern District Court of New York.
