U.S. Supreme Court Won't Review Visa, Mastercard Fees Case -- Update
March 27 2017 - 11:50AM
Dow Jones News
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday declined an invitation
to rescue a $7.25 billion antitrust settlement between Visa Inc.
and MasterCard Inc. and retailers that argued the card companies'
rules led to artificially inflated fees.
The high court in a brief order said it won't review a federal
appeals court decision from last June that invalidated the
settlement. In that ruling, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals said the settlement was problematic because some
groups of merchants weren't adequately represented.
The appeals court found the settlement had problems because it
sought to cover two groups of plaintiffs with different interests:
One group of merchants that was in line to receive monetary damages
based on the credit card fees they paid in the past, and another
group of merchants who wanted changes to the card companies' rules
in the future.
The appeals court found the deal shortchanged those merchants
who were focused on the future card rules.
The Supreme Court's decision to stay out of the case leaves
legal uncertainty for Visa and Mastercard, which already have been
defending the case for a decade.
Merchants had challenged a series of card-industry rules as
being anticompetitive, including one referred to as the "honor all
cards" requirement. That rule meant merchants had to accept all
Visa and Mastercard credit cards no matter the varying fees
associated with them. Other rules prohibited merchants from
charging different prices for different types of payment.
Some of the smaller retailers in the case had petitioned the
Supreme Court to review it and revive the settlement. Visa and
Mastercard supported that effort.
Scores of larger retailers objected to the settlement and urged
the high court to stay out of the case, including Amazon.com Inc.,
Best Buy Co., Home Depot Inc. and Target Corp.
Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 27, 2017 11:35 ET (15:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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