16 Jul 2012

Settlement in credit card fees dispute

7:03 am on 16 July 2012

Visa and Mastercard and major banks in the United States have agreed to a $US7.25 billion settlement to retailers over credit card fees.

The case, which has been going on for seven years, is over firms colluding to fix the fees that stores pay to process credit and debt card payments.

The settlement involves a payment of $US6 billion to stores and an agreement to reduce swipe fees for eight months, valued at $US1.2 billion.

An additional $US525 million has been set aside to pay to various stores which sued individually.

The BBC reports the settlement involves Visa and Mastercard, as well as major US banks which issue their cards including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citibank.