In all likelihood, your business accepts payments through Visa and Mastercard. If that is the case, and you accepted these types of payments between Jan. 1, 2004 and Jan. 25, 2019 (the “settlement period”), you are likely entitled to a share of $5.54 billion in settlement funds due to excessive interchange fees that you were charged.
Interchange fees are charged to a merchant to cover risks associated with processing credit card transactions. No retail business wants to incur these fees, but they are generally viewed as a necessary cost of doing business. Certainly, however, no one wants to pay excessive interchange fees, which is exactly what occurred through Visa and Mastercard transactions during the settlement period.
Recently, a class action settlement in In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation (MDL NO. 1720) was approved by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Claim forms have been approved and filing will likely begin in December 2023.
If you did accept Visa and Mastercard during the settlement period, in order to recover you must first file a claim or have a claim filed on your behalf. As your advocate, Michigan Retailers Association realizes that you may have neither the time nor the resources to pursue a claim and we are here to help. We have partnered with Managed Care Advisory Group (MCAG) to assist all eligible merchants pursue settlement. By using MRA’s historical processing data, we can help maximize your recovery. MCAG is a class action settlement filing expert that will assist you with all of the requirements necessary to file a claim including record gathering, date tracking, data review, claim compliance, and recovery optimization. Thousands of our merchants have already enrolled.
If you would like to use MCAG’s services, register here. This is a simple form that will save you time at minimal cost. Alternatively, you may pursue settlement on your own by visiting paymentcardsettlement.com.
The Visa and Mastercard interchange settlement is an opportunity to recover meaningful funds that you and your business were overcharged. MRA strongly encourages you to take the time to register with MCAG so that a claim may be filed on your behalf or pursue filing a claim on your own. If you have any questions, contact us at 800.366.3699 or mra@retailers.com.
Payment Card Settlement Disclaimer: On December 13, 2019 the Court granted final approval of the settlement filed on September 18, 2018 for the Rule 23(b)(3) Class Plaintiffs in this action. No claim forms are available at this time, and no claim-filing deadline exists. No-cost assistance will be available from the Class Administrator and Class Counsel during any claims-filing period. No one is required to sign up with any third-party service in order to participate in any settlement. For additional information regarding the status of the litigation, interested persons may visit www.paymentcardsettlement.com, the Court-approved website for this case.
