Nearly 1,000 Merchants Tell Judge Proposed Settlement of Visa/Mastercard Lawsuit is ‘Riddled With Loopholes’
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2026 — The Merchant Payments Coalition said today that nearly 1,000 businesses and trade associations have called on a federal judge to reject the proposed settlement of merchants’ lawsuit over Visa and Mastercard credit card swipe fees that drive up consumer prices, saying the deal fails to provide adequate relief.
“We object to this proposed settlement because it would grant Visa, Mastercard and giant card-issuing banks sweeping liability immunity for their anticompetitive system of card fees and rules while providing merchants with temporary and meager relief that is riddled with loopholes that will make the relief largely ineffective,” the businesses and associations said.
“This is the third attempt by the credit card industry to push a settlement in this litigation that protects and preserves their anticompetitive business model for years to come. The courts have rejected these efforts twice before and should do so again.”
The comments came in an objection letter filed Thursday with U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, who is considering whether to give final approval to a proposed settlement that received preliminary approval in June. The 978 signers of the letter include merchant trade associations along with small, medium and large retailers, restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The proposed settlement comes in a 2005 class-action lawsuit alleging that Visa and Mastercard, which control 85% of the card network market, violate federal antitrust law by centrally price-fixing swipe fees charged by all banks that issue cards under their brands.
The current proposal, released in November 2025, is the third proposed settlement. Merchants said it would lower swipe fees only a “miniscule” one-tenth of a percentage point — a small fraction of the 2.36% average merchants paid in 2025 — and would merely return the average Visa/Mastercard rate to its 2023 level, nearly 20 years after litigation started.
The reduction would apply only to interchange fees that go to card-issuing banks and let network fees that go to Visa and Mastercard themselves continue to rise, and would last only five years. Merchants said the duration for which they would be banned from future lawsuits is “alarmingly uncertain.”
Credit and debit card swipe fees have increased 80% since the pandemic, reaching a record $198.25 billion in 2025. They are most merchants’ highest operating cost after labor.
Action on the litigation comes as Congress is considering the Credit Card Competition Act, which would require banks with at least $100 billion in assets to enable credit cards to be processed over at least two unaffiliated networks.
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Originally discovered via Finextra RSS (2026-09-15). Full Finextra article body was unavailable due to Cloudflare bot protection. Content above is from Merchant Payments Coalition press release.