UK: Visa cuts potential swipe-fee bill by $800M

Visa and its former operations in the EU have reportedly won their fight to reduce potential liability of anticompetitive conduct by $800 million.

Visa has been in the midst of legal disputes with retailers around the EU over swipe-fees. Stores sued Visa and the former Visa Europe for the credit card fees the plaintiffs argue violate competition law in how they were set.

According to reports, the retailers were seeking damages from those swipe-fees dating back to 1977. But a judge in London ruled this week that any damages claims must be made from 2007 onward.

Judge Peregrine Simon decided that Visa was not part of a “secret cartel” in setting swipe fee rates. Instead, he found, the setting of those fees were “matters of public knowledge, which had been notified to the competition authorities.”

Reports say limiting the timeline for retailers to seek damages cuts Visa’s potential liability by $800 million.

Both Visa and MasterCard have been pulled into regulatory investigations and private lawsuits around the globe over swipe-fee issues; authorities in the EU and US have acted to cap interchange fee costs in recent years.

Full content: Bloomberg

Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.