Visa, Mastercard interchange fees class action settlement overview:
- Who: Visa and Mastercard have agreed to a $131 million settlement agreement to resolve claims made by Canadian merchants.
- Why: Settlement funds will reimburse merchants for interchange fees they had to pay on transactions using Visa and Mastercard credit cards since 2001.
- Where: The settlement funds will compensate merchants across Canada.
Visa and Mastercard agreed to a combined $131 million settlement made to resolve claims regarding credit card processing fees they charged to Canadian businesses.
Business owners have until Sept. 30 to make a claim to join the settlement class, which consists of both small and large merchants, The Globe and Mail reports.
Small merchants, or those which make less than $5 million in annual revenue, are eligible to claim as much as $30 for each year they accepted credit card payments with a maximum of $600 in total reimbursement.
Large merchants, meanwhile, are eligible to receive up to $250 a year (with a max of $5,000) from the class action settlement but must provide more extensive documentation to support their claims, CBC News reports.
To qualify, a Canadian merchant must have accepted a Visa or Mastercard payment between 2001 and 2021 and been charged “merchant discount fees.”
The settlement funds are meant to provide partial compensation to business owners who paid transaction fees to Visa and Mastercard on credit card payments, The Globe and Mail reports.
Visa, Mastercard accused of sharing fees between banks, payment processors
Merchants filed a class action lawsuit against Visa and Mastercard in 2010, arguing the companies improperly charged them interchange fees shared between themselves, banks and payment processors.
The settlement also stipulates that merchants will, starting in October, be able to legally add a surcharge to customers’ purchases to cover the cost of the transaction fees, The Globe and Mail reports.
Visa and Mastercard had previously included clauses in their contracts with merchants that forbid them from adding surcharges to customers’ bills to cover any extra transaction costs.
Last October, a final group of bank defendants joined a class action settlement meant to resolve claims they and other acquirers worked with Visa and Mastercard to set interchange fees and keep merchants from setting surcharges.
Have you been charged an interchange fee on a transaction using a Visa or Mastercard credit card? Let us know in the comments!
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3 thoughts onVisa, MasterCard fee settlement open to businesses through September
I have accepted credit payments from all card companies for the last 3 years, i get the fees and all that as it is some sort of a convenience for both them and I to be able to accept for payments, trust me cash only caused so many people to go elsewhere prior to me being able to accept but what I don’t get is why they not only are still doing it these days and just raised the % for me anyways when there is a paper money shortage and actually being asked to use plastic or touch less payments, yet they hiked the fee for me not much but enough that it stings especially since it is stinging anyway with less shopping being done (apart from holidays)
I have paid many fees to accept VISA and MASTERCARD since 2015. I have no problem with fees to accept cards. It is the fact that they charge us to fund reward cards that upsets me. A fee to accept cards is part of doing business. It is a fee to allow a client to have convenience instead of carrying around Hundreds in cash. Which in turn allows me to attract the clients who have basically been upset by another merchant passing on the fees or refusing to accept Credit cards. However, when they turn around and charge us more for someone using a rewards card then that is the part that upsets me. If CIBC (or any card issuer) wishes to offer rewards, they should fund that rewards program 100% not have me as the merchant pay for the “qualified” cards as they call them.
I accepted visa debit & credit cards from 1990- 2014