Fee on Visa card issuers ruled illegal
From Times Wire Services
A service fee that Visa places on its largest debit-card issuers that essentially deterred them from moving their business to a competitor is unlawful, a judge has ruled.
Credit card network operator and Visa rival MasterCard Inc. said U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones ruled against Visa’s fee, which was imposed after a lawsuit was settled in 2003.
The service fee required Visa’s 100 largest issuers of debit cards to pay a “settlement service fee” if they reduced their Visa debit volume by more than 10%. MasterCard claimed that the fee effectively prevented those issuers from switching their business to MasterCard.