Visa and MasterCard are facing a new, proposed class action from small business owners who allege the credit card giants conspired with banks to improperly hike transaction fees on purchases made on Square’s devices, reported Bloomberg Law.
Hiking the “interchange” fees, which are charged by the credit card companies when customers swipe their cards using a Square device and ultimately passed onto merchants, violates 26 states’ antitrust laws, according to the complaint, filed Wedneday, June 16, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz; and Pearson Simon & Warshaw filed the antitrust class action Wednesday in New York Eastern District Court against MasterCard and Visa. The complaint accuses the defendants of engaging in price-fixing by charging users a so-called ‘interchange fee’ on each transaction.
The case is 1:21-cv-03401, Camp Grounds Coffee, LLC et al v. Visa, Inc. et al.
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