Visa and Mastercard May Owe Your Practice Money

On December 13th, a New York federal judge gave final approval to a $7.25 billion antitrust settlement over credit card companies’ alleged conspiracy to fix prices for credit card swipe fees. Described as “the largest settlement of an antitrust class-action case in U.S. history”, the deal is expected to end the long-running  (since 2005) lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard and several large banks that issue the companies’ credit cards, including Bank of America Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Your practice probably received notice of a class action lawsuit sometime over the last year. As long as you did not opt out of the settlement (by submitting an exclusion request) your practice stands to receive a refund from the Payment Card Settlement Fund. Your refund may be small, but the lawsuit sheds light on the often incomprehensible language and terms of credit card processing.