US: Retail group calls swipe-fee offer ‘next to worthless’ at fairness hearing

At the opening of the fairness hearing that will decide the fate of the $7.25 billion settlement offer, put forward by Visa, MasterCard and major banks to end a class action lawsuit over swipe-fees, the National Retail Federation slammed the offer as “next to worthless.”

NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan stood before presiding Judge John Gleeson in New York Thursday to shame the settlement put forward to nearly 8,000 retailers over the so-called interchange fees, placed upon stores every time a card is swiped at the register.

Twenty-five percent of merchants named in the class chose to opt-out of the offer, including Wal-Mart and Starbucks.

In court, Duncan told the judge the settlement “does nothing to reduce swipe fees or keep them from rising in the future, it offers retailers pennies on the dollar for the damage that has already been done, and it tries to tie merchants’ hands from ever suing again.”

”This is actually worse than no settlement at all because it further entrenches the monopoly held by the card companies,” he said.

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