Visa Inc And U.S. Retailers Resolve Claims In Federal Multi-District Interchange Litigation

Visa Inc, MasterCard and U.S. financial institution defendants announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding to enter into a settlement agreement to resolve the Class Plaintiffs' claims in the multi-district interchange litigation (MDL). The claims originally were brought by a class of U.S. retailers in 2005. Visa also has reached an agreement in principle to resolve the claims brought against Visa by a group of individual retailers (the Individual Plaintiffs) in the same MDL litigation. The proposed settlement payments for both the Class and Individual claims would be approximately $6.6 billion, of which Visa's share would represent approximately $4.4 billion. Visa's share will be paid from the litigation escrow account established pursuant to Visa's Retrospective Responsibility Plan. The settlement agreement with the Class Plaintiffs includes, among other terms: A comprehensive release from participating class members for liability arising out of claims asserted in the litigation, and a further release to protect against future litigation regarding interchange and the other U.S. rules at issue in the MDL litigation; Agreement that Visa will meet with merchant buying groups that seek to negotiate interchange rates collectively (e.g., independent drug stores). Visa retains discretion to accept or reject a proposal based on whether the Company believes it is commercially reasonable.