Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: HP settles price fixing claims against Visa, MasterCard in $7.25B case, (Oct 24, 2014)
Law Firms Mentioned:Arnold & Porter LLP | Grant & Eisenhofer P.A. | Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP | Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
Organizations Mentioned:Arnold & Porter, LLP | Grant & Eisenhofer, PA | Hewlett-Packard Co. | Holwell Shuster & Goldberg, LLP | MasterCard Inc. | MasterCard International Inc. | Mastercard | Mastercard International, Inc. | Visa | Visa Inc. | Visa International Service Association | Visa U.S.A. Inv. | Willkie Farr & Gallagher, LLP
By Greg Hammond, J.D.
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) has stipulated and agreed to dismiss an action against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. after reaching a settlement over allegations that the two credit card companies conspired to fix interchange fees in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The stipulation and proposed order for dismissal was filed yesterday in the federal district court in Brooklyn (In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, October 23, 2014).
The court previously granted a $7.25 billion settlement in this case, in which Visa and MasterCard were accused of adopting and enforcing rules relating to payment cards that had the combined effect of unreasonably restraining trade and injuring merchants. They included: (1) rules regarding the settling of default interchange fees; (2) "anti-steering" rules, including "no surcharge," "no discounting" or "non-discrimination," and "no minimum purchase" rules that restricted merchants from steering customers to lower-cost credit cards and/or forms of payment other than Visa or MasterCard cards; (3) "exclusionary" rules, including "all outlets," "no bypass," and "no multi-issuer" rules, restricting merchants in accepting and processing payments made with Visa and MasterCard cards; and (4) "Honor-all-Cards" rules, requiring merchants to accept all the network’s credit cards or all the network’s debit cards when proffered for payment, regardless of which bank issued the card.
The case number is 14-MD-1720 (JG) (JO).
Attorneys: Linda P. Nussbaum (Grant & Eisenhofer P.A.) for Hewlett-Packard Co. Robert C. Mason, Robert J. Vizas, Mark R. Merley (Arnold & Porter LLP), Richard J. Holwell, Michael S. Shuster, Demian A. Ordway, Zachary A. Kerner (Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP) for Visa U.S.A. Inc., Visa International Service Association, and Visa Inc. Matthew Freimuth, Keila D. Ravelo, Wesley R. Powell (Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP), Kenneth A. Gallo, Andrew C. Finch, and Gary R. Carney for MasterCard International Inc. and MasterCard Inc.
Companies: Hewlett-Packard Co.; Visa U.S.A. Inv.; Visa Inc.; Visa International Service Association; MasterCard International Inc.; MasterCard Inc.
News: Antitrust NewYorkNews