VISA/MASTERCARD CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT: HOW YOUR BUSINESS CAN BENEFIT

 

If your business accepted Visa or Mastercard payments between 2004 and 2019, you might be eligible to benefit from this settlement.  

 

Did your business accept Visa or Mastercard payments at some point between 2004 and 2019? We’re going to bet you did, in which case, good news! You probably qualify for a settlement payment.

 

You’ve likely already heard about the antitrust class action lawsuit between merchants –like you– and the credit card companies. 

 

Basically, for fifteen years Visa and Mastercard overcharged merchants a percentage on interchange fees every time shoppers paid using credit or debit cards. The overcharge was a tiny tiny percentage, but over time it really added up. 

 

Now Visa/Mastercard reached a settlement to pay around $5.6 billion to reimburse merchants for these overcharges, meaning you can claim your share of the billions in settlement funds!

 

SETTLEMENT OVERVIEW

 

The class action lawsuit against Visa and Mastercard, officially known as the Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement, alleged that the credit card companies knowingly conspired to inflate interchange rates – aka swipe fees – higher than they should have been. Essentially, this resulted in illegal price fixing. 

 

On top of that, the lawsuit also alleged that Visa and Mastercard then prevented businesses from directing their customers towards cheaper means of payment. 

 

On January 25, 2019 a $5.6 billion settlement was approved by a court.  The settlement applied to approximately 12 million merchants. 

 

Recently, on March 23, 2023, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed this approval, paving the way for affected merchants to finally file a claim. 

DOES MY BUSINESS BENEFIT FROM THIS SETTLEMENT?

 

If your business accepted Visa or Mastercard credit card payments between January 1, 2004 and January 25, 2019, you likely qualify to receive reimbursement for overpayment.

 

The lawsuit is specifically between the credit card companies and the merchants, so it is you as the business owner who qualifies to file, not the service providers that facilitate credit card payments.

 

WHAT IS AN INTERCHANGE FEE?

 

An interchange fee is the fee paid by a merchant to credit card companies every time they accept payment from a customer in the form of a credit or debit card. It is calculated as a percentage of the total transaction, typically between 1.5-3%, and is automatically deducted from the money the merchant receives.

 

So if a customer pays for a $100 pair of shoes using a credit card, the credit card company keeps a few cents before sending the rest of the money to the shoe retailer.

HOW DO I FILE?

In order to receive money from this settlement, you must first file a valid claim. The funds awarded will then be calculated based on how much your business paid in interchange fees during the Class Period between 2004 and 2019. 

 

Because the Class Period started so long ago, many businesses’ records of some of that time are at this point partially unavailable, or no longer existent. After all, most businesses only keep full records five years back for IRS purposes. 

 

This is where partnering with a firm like Archetype Consulting Group can help. At ACG we can help gather all the necessary information and file the claim for you, even if your business records for the Class Period are incomplete or unavailable.

 

The claim filing deadline is still TBD. 

WHEN CAN I RECEIVE FUNDS FROM THIS SETTLEMENT?

While the process for a merchant to file a claim is now established and available, the timeline for business owners to actually receive funds is murkier.

 

Here’s another way partnering with a firm like ACG can be beneficial to merchants: Archetype Consulting Group can calculate how much a business is likely to receive from the settlement and pay the merchant upfront so business owners don’t have to worry about a dragged out process of fund disbursement from the settlement!

 

WHAT’S THE CATCH?

At the end of the day, the Visa/Mastercard settlement is just plain great news for merchants who accepted credit cards during the settlement period. The funds are there for merchants like you to claim!

 

What’s more, the funds in the settlement are being distributed on a pro-rata basis, meaning that the $5.6 billion pot is made up of monies already pre-earmarked for every business, and eventually the entire pot needs to be disbursed. But! Only merchants who file actually get their share, and any funds left from businesses that never filed get split up proportionately amongst those who did.

 

While opportunities like this one may seem too good to be true, unconventional funds such as this one can become available to businesses from a variety of places. The problem is, most business owners don’t know where to look or how to get them.

 

Accessing funds like this on behalf of businesses is what we at ACG specialize in. Whether it’s settlement money from a major class action lawsuit, or short term tax credits, our highly experienced team constantly works on finding available funds you and your business might qualify for and helping you receive them, while ensuring the entire process is both above board and hassle free.

 

There may be money out there with your name on it! And ACG can help you get it!