WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation on Thursday formally filed an appeal of the proposed massive antitrust lawsuit settlement covering credit card interchange fees.
The NRF is asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court’s ruling that would award about $5.7 billion to retailers but would prohibit them from filing certain types of litigation against card issuers in the future.
“The settlement does nothing to reform the price-fixing payments system that has let credit card swipe fees skyrocket over the past decade and nothing to keep them from continuing to soar in the future,” said NRF SVP and general counsel Mallory Duncan in a statement. “Instead of lowering fees, the card industry’s settlement proposes that merchants pass them along to consumers in the form of surcharges. That is absolutely the opposite of what retailers sought, and major retailers have soundly rejected surcharging.
“There has been no agreement to this settlement by the retail industry,” he added. “Instead, there’s a settlement with nine individual retailers whose views are not representative of the collective industry.”
Read more: NGA Expects to Appeal Card Settlement
The lawsuit was filed in 2005 by several retail associations — including NRF and the National Grocers Association — and merchants against Visa, MasterCard and several banks alleging they violated antitrust laws by fixing the prices of credit card interchange fees and setting anti-competitive rules.
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