Details
Written by: RJ
Visa and Mastercard have come to a $38B settlement with merchants over swipe fees. The deal still needs to be signed off on by a judge.
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The settlement calls for Visa and Mastercard to lower swipe fees, which averaged 2.35% in 2024 and typically range from 2% to 2.5%, by 0.1 percentage point for five years.
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Merchants would be able to choose whether to accept U.S. cards in specific categories including commercial cards, premium consumer cards including many rewards cards, and standard consumer cards.
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Standard consumer rates would be capped for eight years at 1.25%, a more than 25% reduction.
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Merchants would also get more options to impose surcharges when people pay by card, including an “unfettered” ability to charge up to 3%, according to a court filing
Thoughts
Still needs to be approved by a judge. As the article points out, I don’t see many retailers turning away customers based on the card they present. many customers don’t know what type of card they have or that this lawsuit has been going on for so long. Additionally, I don’t see any savings coming to consumers from the swipe fee decreases.
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Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, vendors or companies, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.