A federal judge has granted preliminary approval to a revised $38 billion settlement between Visa, Mastercard, and more than 12 million U.S. merchants.
The agreement would:
• Reduce interchange fees by approximately 0.1 percentage point for five years.
• Cap certain consumer card interchange rates at 1.25% for eight years.
• End the “Honor All Cards” rule by giving merchants the ability to selectively accept payment cards based on type (commercial, premium consumer, and standard consumer cards), instead of being forced to accept every card in a network or none at all.
• Give merchants expanded options to impose surcharges on customers based on their form of payment.