Retail giant Walmart and payments company Visa are enmeshed in talks with an eye on settling Walmart’s $5 billion lawsuit tied to processing fees, known commonly as “swipe fees.”
Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Oct. 6) that the talks were disclosed through filings made in a Brooklyn federal court on Monday. The suit is one of several dozen filed by retailers that allege that credit card companies worked in collusion to “fix” swipe fees.
In reference to ongoing talks, according to Bloomberg, the lawyers for both Visa and Walmart have asked for a delay on shared information in order to “continue to engage in discussions” (to use language in the filing) that seek to end the suit against Visa and a separate suit by Visa against Walmart, which dates to 2013.
[bctt tweet=”Walmart and Visa to “continue to engage in discussions,” according to court filings.”]
Walmart and a series of other sellers have opted out of a widely reported national settlement with two of the largest card companies, Visa and MasterCard, that was also centered on fees, contesting that the settlement was not enough and that card companies would again be able to boost those payment rates, according to Bloomberg. That settlement originally stood at almost $7.3 billion and then went down to $5.7 billion after several plaintiffs walked away. That settlement is on appeal.
As for Walmart, Bloomberg noted, the claim is in place that Visa caused the retailer to suffer “enormous damage” from January 2004 to November 2012 in an industry that the newswire reported sees card companies collecting as much as $50 billion annually from swipe fees from U.S. companies alone. Walmart had originally filed its suit against Visa in 2014, after it opted out of the aforementioned settlement.
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