Visa, MasterCard, banks settle with retailers for $7.25 billion

MarketWatch

NEW YORK

Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and credit-card issuing banks have agreed to pay retailers as much as $7.25 billion to resolve what could be the biggest antitrust settlement in U.S. history.

“The largest private antitrust settlement in history is probably the appropriate way to characterize it,” said attorney Martin Lueck, chairman of the executive board at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP, which represented retailers in the long-running dispute. “The big thing the settlement does is it achieves transparency of the costs visited upon merchants by credit-card issuers.”

The settlement, which still needs to be approved by a judge, was announced by the parties involved late Friday. It’s seen as victory for the nation’s retailers because it means stores will be able to charge customers more if they make purchases using a credit card, a practice previously banned by Visa and MasterCard.

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.