NEW YORK – With the number
of retailers objecting to the $7 billion antitrust settlement growing, J.C.
Penney, Macy’s and Target claim MasterCard and Visa are monopolizing profits at
their expense, Forbes reports.
The lawsuit comes on the
heels of the National Retail Federation’s statement that it will oppose the
settlement, joining Walmart and NACS, among other groups and businesses, in
rejecting the settlement. Tuesday is the deadline set by U.S. District Judge
John Gleeson for objections to the settlement.
These retailers point out
the settlement will usher in an even worse relationship between businesses and
Visa and MasterCard because the settlement neglected to ensure the credit-card
firms would change the practices that triggered the lawsuit-settlement in the
first place. Credit card companies generate $40 billion annually through swipe
fees.
NACS is both opting out
and objecting to the proposed settlement because it fails to modify the
price-fixing and other anti-competitive activities of Visa, MasterCard and
their card-issuing banks in order to bring competition to this broken market.
While retailers might get a couple of months’ worth of their fees back through
the settlement, their swipe fees would likely increase by more than the dollars
they would receive before they even receive a single penny from the settlement
fund. Worse, the proposed settlement requires class members to release Visa and
MasterCard from liability, forever, for any anticompetitive rules currently in
place (including the interchange or swipe fee rules) and/or any
"substantially similar rules" instituted at any time in the future.
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information.