US Retailers to sue Visa, MasterCard, and major banks
Several retail groups have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa USA, MasterCard International and dozens of major U.S. banks, saying they acted together to set excessive credit card fees.
The lawsuit, filed Friday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, concerns interchange fees, which retail merchants pay to issuing banks to receive payments for transactions involving the banks’ cards.
It is similar to a lawsuit filed in July by Kroger Co. and other retailers accusing Visa of setting fees too high.
The plaintiffs include the National Association of Convenience Stores the National Association of Chain Drug Stores), the National Community Pharmacists Association and the National Cooperative Grocers Association These groups collectively represent hundreds of thousands of U.S. stores that accept Visa and MasterCard as a form of payment.
Among the defendant banks are Bank of America Corp Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. the largest U.S. credit card issuers.
