FAQ

This settlement resolves longstanding merchant allegations that Visa, Mastercard, and other banks engaged in anti-competitive practices, driving up interchange fees and harming businesses across the nation.

When a cardholder purchases something with a payment card, Visa and Mastercard will charge the merchant an interchange fee which is a percentage of the total purchase price. These fees are typically the greatest part of the total fees paid by merchants for accepting Visa and Mastercard cards.

From small businesses to large corporations, the claimant class is vast. Any U.S. entity that accepted Visa or Mastercard credit or debit cards from from January 1, 2004, to January 25, 2019 is eligible.

The time for appeals has passed and the settlement became effective on August 8, 2023. The parties are currently preparing for administration of the claims process. The mailing is projected to start December 1, 2023, with a claim filing deadline in June, 2024. Additional details will be provided at PaymentCardSettlement.com as soon as they become available.

The calculation will take into account the interchange fees your business paid during the 15-year period, the total amount of interchange fees paid by all class members during this period, and the total number of valid claims that are submitted. The settlement administrator will then calculate each claimant’s pro rata share of the settlement fund based on this formula. While the exact amount a merchant will receive will depend on several factors, CCC’s advanced tools and unique expertise enable us to provide a confident assessment of your claim’s worth. To learn more and have us run the numbers for you, call our specialists or send an email today.

In order to receive a payment, you must submit a claim form. Claim forms are not currently available, but we expect the administrator to start mailing notices starting in December, 2023.

If you receive a notice in the mail, a claim form will be mailed, or emailed, to you automatically. The claim form will also be posted on the paymentcardsettlement.com website and available by calling 1-800-625-6440. Class members will be able to submit claims electronically using the paymentcardsettlement website, by email or by returning a paper claim form.

The settlement administrator will have data which it expects will permit it to estimate the total value of interchange fees attributable to each authorized caimant on its Visa and Mastercard card transactions during the period from January 1, 2004, to January 25, 2019. Where the necessary data is not reasonably available to estimate your Interchange fees paid, or if you dispute the claim value established by administrator, you will be required to submit information in support of your claim. This information must include, to the extent known:

⦁ your Interchange fees paid; 

⦁ your merchant discount fees paid;

⦁ your merchant category code and/or a description of your business; and 

⦁ your total Visa and Mastercard transaction volume and/or total sales volume. 

Based on these data, the Interchange Fees Paid attributable to the class member will be estimated for each known member of the settlement class.

The administrator also expects to provide class members the ability to access the claims website with a unique code to permit it to view the manner in which its claim value was calculated and may also provide this information on a pre-populated claim form. Class members may accept or disagree with data on the claim form or the official settlement website. The claim form and website will explain how to challenge the data.

The Claim Form also allows class members for whom no financial data is available or who were not identified as class members to file a claim. Those merchants will have to fill out and sign a Claim Form and return it by the deadline.

Yes. Mitena Partners, is backed by Certificate Clearing. CCC is a pioneer in the third-party claim filing industry, with 30 years of helping consumers and businesses recover monies in class action settlements. CCC and other such companies are allowed to file your claim for you, in exchange for a portion of your recovery from the settlement. While we encourage you to take advantage of CCC’s convenience, knowledgeable service and no-wait monetization options, you should know that you can file with the class administrator on your own, free of charge. Additionally, you are entitled to contact the class administrator or Rule 23(b)(3) Class Counsel for assistance with understanding and filing your claim form — again, at no cost to you.

If you do not file a claim, you cannot get money from this settlement.

Or, in its full legal glory: If you did not exclude yourself from the Rule 23(b)(3) Settlement Class, you cannot be part of any other lawsuit against Defendants and other released parties listed in the Rule 23(b)(3) Class Settlement Agreement for released conduct. You will be bound by the Rule 23(b)(3) Settlement Class Release, except that as to the declaratory and injunctive relief claims asserted in the pending proposed Rule 23(b)(2) class action captioned Barry’s Cut Rate Stores, Inc., et. al. v. Visa, Inc., et al., MDL No. 1720, Docket No. 05-md-01720-MKB-JO, you will continue to have all rights pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which you have as a named representative plaintiff or absent class member in that action, except the right to initiate a new separate action before five (5) years following the court’s approval of the settlement and the exhaustion of all appeals. The July 23, 2019 deadline for requesting exclusion from the Rule 23(b)(3) Settlement has now passed.