“We are encouraged by the Court’s decision to grant preliminary approval of the settlement. This represents an important step toward potential resolution of this decades-long litigation. We believe the proposed settlement would provide U.S. merchants of all sizes with meaningful relief, more flexibility, and options to control how they accept payments from their customers.”
The terms of the settlement include:
- Credit surcharging. Merchants will have more options to surcharge, including if they do not surcharge other credit networks.
- Honor All Cards. Merchants will be able to choose whether to accept U.S. credit cards in distinct categories—commercial, premium consumer and standard consumer.
- Lower interchange. The settlement provides for a reduction of the U.S. combined average effective credit interchange rate by 10 bps for five years.
- Interchange rate certainty. The settlement will cap posted U.S. credit interchange rates for five years. In addition, standard U.S. consumer credit rates will be capped at 125 bps through the term of the agreement.
- Merchant education. A new merchant education program about payment acceptance and cost management will be available to merchants of all sizes.
The settlement agreement is subject to final approval by the court.