Retailers Object to Credit Card Settlement
- Washington, DC
- 12/17/2025
This longstanding and important litigation is focused on the harmful anticompetitive rules and fees imposed by Visa and Mastercard, which have affected merchants nationwide by inflating costs and restricting competition. This is the third time that Visa/Mastercard attempted to settle this case, and the latest iteration again fails to deliver meaningful reform.
“What this settlement will provide (if approved) is what Defendants have long desired: continuation of their extremely profitable, but plainly anti-competitive behavior while obtaining an extraordinarily broad, mandatory, class-wide release,” RILA wrote in their objections.
Fundamentally, the proposed settlement leaves in place the harmful anticompetitive payment practices that have kept interchange fees artificially high for decades. While purporting to address the “honor-all-cards” rules — which require merchants to accept all Visa/Mastercard cards regardless of the fees associated with those cards — the proposed settlement does little to change the status quo or offer a solution that is practicable for merchants. Furthermore, it effectively enshrines Visa/Mastercard’s inflated interchange rates for years to come. As RILA explained in their objection, “the end result is a proposed settlement that provides illusory relief.”
And this illusory relief is fundamentally tied to a faulty process. “Representing one of the largest mandatory classes in the history of [class settlements], including nearly every merchant in the country, are a collection of five tiny businesses — a hair salon, pharmacy, dentist, and like entities. These businesses plainly lack the necessary experience or judgment to tie the entire merchant community’s hands,” the objection explained. Not only are the class representatives not well situated to negotiate mandatory class-wide relief, but they have inexplicitly frozen entities like RILA — whose members are responsible for one of the largest categories of credit card transactions in the United States — out of the negotiation process.
Despite these obvious and glaring flaws with the proposed settlement, retail merchants are unable to opt-out of its terms. If approved, merchants will be stuck with its terms for years to come while Visa and Mastercard will continue to rake in enormous profits at the expense of retailers and consumers alike.
“Once again in this settlement agreement, Defendants have obtained much more than what is fair and reasonable: insulation from future claims over their misconduct, claims that could have been raised, and claims that relate to any claims that could have been raised. It is unconscionable for this settlement agreement to impose these terms on mandatory Class Members,” the objection states.
RILA will continue to advocate for a resolution that delivers meaningful relief to its members and addresses the core anti-competitive behavior of Visa/Mastercard.
###
RILA is the US trade association for leading retailers. We convene decision-makers, advocate for the industry, and promote operational excellence and innovation. Our aim is to elevate a dynamic industry by transforming the environment in which retailers operate.
RILA members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $2.7 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs, and hundreds of thousands of stores, manufacturing facilities, and distribution centers domestically and abroad.
Tags
-
Finance
-
Competition
-
Retail Works for All of Us
