{"id":39171,"date":"2012-07-14T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-14T12:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armbanks.am\/2012\/07\/14\/236003\/"},"modified":"2024-12-15T12:58:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-15T12:58:31","slug":"visa-inc-and-mastercard-inc-agree-to-pay-retailers-6-billion-to-settle-a-price-fixing-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armbanks.am\/en\/2012\/07\/14\/39171\/","title":{"rendered":"Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. agree to pay retailers $6 billion to settle a price-fixing lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>YEREVAN , July 14, \/ARKA\/<\/strong>. Visa Inc.andMasterCard Inc. agreed late Friday to pay retailers $6 billion to settle a price-fixing lawsuit that alleged they overcharged companies billions of dollars in credit-card transaction fees, AP reported.<br \/>\nThe agreement is believed to be the largest settlement ever of a private antitrust case, according to lawyers for 7 million American merchants who sued the card companies in 2005. The total value of the agreement is $7.25 billion, counting a temporary reduction in card fees.<br \/>\nThe deal is a big victory for retailers, which have long chafed at having to pay &#8220;swipe&#8221; fees of 2% or more every time a consumer uses a credit card to buy anything from a pair of flip-flops to a pickup truck.<\/p>\n<p>Visa and MasterCard agreed for the first time to allow merchants to pass along credit-card charges to consumers instead of having to shoulder them themselves. That could eliminate any incentive for merchants to give discounts to buyers who pay in cash.<br \/>\nThe dispute involves the processing charges, also known as interchange or swipe fees, that merchants pay when they process credit-card purchases, generating more than $40 billion a year for banks. The price-fixing lawsuit, filed in 2005, alleged that Visa and MasterCard conspired to raise the fees to benefit themselves and the banks.<\/p>\n<p>Swipe fees have stirred enormous controversy, with critics saying the card companies and major banks vastly overcharge for what is essentially a routine and low-cost computerized transaction.<br \/>\nIn a survey of 1,514 consumers released this week by Morgan Stanley, 76% said they were likely to switch to a debit card, cash or check rather than pay 1% to 2% extra for using a credit card, and 43% considered themselves &#8220;very likely&#8221; to do so.<\/p>\n<p>The study noted, however, that many investors in card companies have been unconcerned about the prospect of surcharges, believing &#8220;that merchants would find it difficult to implement the practice given the friction and service issues it causes.&#8221;\u00a0 -0-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Visa Inc.andMasterCard Inc. agreed late Friday to pay retailers $6 billion to settle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","tstyn_error":""},"categories":[12139,9216],"tags":[12259,13217,12757,474],"class_list":{"0":"post-39171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-economy-en","7":"category-news","8":"tag-companies","9":"tag-lawsuit","10":"tag-usa","11":"tag-474"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/armbanks.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/armbanks.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/armbanks.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armbanks.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armbanks.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/armbanks.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/armbanks.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armbanks.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/armbanks.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}