Lawsuit Against Visa, MasterCard Dismissed

Visa USA and MasterCard International have won dismissal of a lawsuit by California merchants that accused the credit card associations of antitrust violations in setting payment transaction fees.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco also dismissed claims against Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and U.S. Bancorp, saying the merchants failed to allege a conspiracy to fix fees.

The California merchants had accused the card associations of price fixing in setting “merchant discount fees,” which are transaction fees between merchants and banks, and “interchange fees,” which are fees between card association member banks.

White said the merchants could not get around a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court antitrust ruling he said barred awarding damages to them.