US: SCOTUS pulls plug on Visa and MasterCard in antitrust appeal

The US Supreme Court on Thursday gave the green light to class action lawsuits by consumers accusing Visa, Mastercard and several US banks of conspiring to inflate the prices of ATM access fees in violation of antitrust law.

The justices dismissed two related cases they earlier had agreed to hear in which the companies had sought to overturn an August 2015 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that had revived the three lawsuits.

The justices had been scheduled to hear oral arguments on Dec. 7. In the order, the court said the cases were dismissed because the companies had changed their legal arguments after the justices agreed to hear the dispute. The court frowns upon such practices.

The appeals court ruled that a district court had erred when it concluded that consumers had no legal standing to sue and had not adequately alleged antitrust violations. It remanded the three consolidated lawsuits to the district court for further proceedings.

The lawsuits accused Visa and MasterCard of adopting rules protecting themselves from competition with lower-cost ATM networks. The rules blocked ATM operators from charging less when ATM transactions were processed by networks competing with Visa and Mastercard, the lawsuits said.

Full content: Reuters

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