Visa, Mastercard Swipe-Fee Settlement: No Cash Claims

Q: Is there a $38 billion settlement fund?

No cash fund for class members has been verified. The often-cited $38 billion figure is an expert estimate of merchant savings through 2031 from the rule and fee changes, not a pot of money to be paid out. The agreement itself says class members receive no money payments.

Q: Can merchants or consumers file a claim?

No claim form has been verified. The agreement is structured as injunctive (rule-change) relief, not a payout program. The class is made up of merchants and other entities that accepted Visa- or Mastercard-branded cards, not consumers who used them.

Q: Who is included in the class?

The Rule 23(b)(2) class is all persons, businesses, and other entities that accepted Visa- and/or Mastercard-branded cards in the United States between December 18, 2020 and the date of preliminary settlement approval. No exclusions are permitted.

By Steve Levine

Published: June 17, 2026

Status Preliminary Approval Granted · Final Approval Pending

What the Class Gets Rule changes, not cash The agreement states members of the class "shall receive no money payments" — the relief is changes to interchange fees and card-acceptance rules

Who's Covered U.S. merchants that accepted Visa or Mastercard Businesses and other entities that accepted Visa- or Mastercard-branded cards between December 18, 2020 and the date of preliminary approval — not cardholders

Can I Claim? No — there is no claim form This is injunctive relief; no merchant checks and no consumer claims are part of this agreement

What Is This About?

A federal judge in Brooklyn has preliminarily approved a revised Visa and Mastercard swipe-fee settlement in the long-running payment-card antitrust litigation, but businesses should not mistake the case for a cash-claims settlement. The case is In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, No. 1:05-md-01720-BMC-JAM, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and Reuters reported that Judge Brian M. Cogan granted preliminary approval on June 9, 2026, nearly two years after an earlier proposed deal was rejected.

The most important point for OpenClassActions readers is that this is not a claims-driven settlement. The governing agreement says that members of the class "shall receive no money payments." In other words, no merchant checks are being promised under this agreement, and no consumer claim path has been identified. The relief here takes the form of changes to Visa's and Mastercard's interchange fees and their rules for merchants who accept the cards.

The agreement now before the court is titled the Superseding and Amended Class Settlement Agreement of the Rule 23(b)(2) Class Plaintiffs and the Defendants, and is dated November 10, 2025. It identifies the merchant-side track of the case as Barry's Cut Rate Stores, Inc., et al. v. Visa, Inc., et al., also now known as DDMB, Inc., et al. v. Visa, Inc., et al. Visa and Mastercard deny any wrongdoing; a settlement is a compromise, not a finding of liability.

The "$38 Billion" Figure Is Not a Cash Fund

Public headlines often describe this as a "$38 billion" settlement, but that framing needs context. Reuters reported that the $38 billion figure reflects an expert estimate of merchant savings through 2031 from the rule and fee changes — not a settlement fund that will be paid out to class members. Reuters also reported that plaintiffs' experts projected broader economic benefits beyond those merchant savings. There is no pot of money for class members to claim a share of.

Who Is in the Class?

The class is made up of people, businesses, and other entities that accepted Visa-branded cards and/or Mastercard-branded cards in the United States during the period from December 18, 2020 to the date of preliminary settlement approval. In the agreement, that class definition is tied to the court's September 27, 2021 certification order (ECF No. 8647), as modified by the court's June 25, 2024 order (ECF No. 9333). The agreement also says no exclusions are permitted — the Rule 23(b)(2) feature that readers should understand as the opposite of a typical opt-out cash class. The class is merchant acceptors, not the consumers who used the cards.

What the Settlement Would Change

If the settlement wins final approval, Visa and Mastercard would have to implement several business-practice changes. According to the agreement and to Reuters' reporting, those include:

An average effective interchange-rate reduction of at least 10 basis points (0.10 percentage points) for five years.
Posted-rate reductions and a 125-basis-point (1.25%) cap on standard consumer credit card interchange in the covered categories, measured against the networks' March 31, 2025 posted rates.
Broader merchant rights to steer customers toward cheaper payment methods.
New choices to accept or decline certain product categories, such as premium consumer or commercial credit cards.
Expanded surcharging at the brand or product level, generally capped at the lower of 3% or the merchant's cost of acceptance.
More flexibility to accept some digital wallets while declining others.
A merchant-education program and an independent auditor to verify the networks' compliance with the rate commitments.

These are real operational changes, but they are a form of injunctive relief, not direct monetary compensation. Importantly, the agreement still preserves category-wide acceptance obligations: a merchant that chooses to accept a given category may still have to accept all cards within that category, regardless of which bank issued them.

Money in the Agreement Is for Costs, Not a Payout

The agreement does spell out related funding that should not be confused with a class payout: $5.3 million for notice, $21 million for merchant education, $4.5 million for independent-auditor expenses, and up to $206 million in court-approved attorneys' fees and expenses. Those are implementation and litigation-related amounts, not a distribution fund for merchants. The class administrator identified in the agreement is Epiq Systems, Inc., which will carry out the notice plan.

Not the Same as the Older $5.5 Billion Cash Settlement

This case is separate from the older merchant cash settlement that covered a much earlier period of card acceptance. That earlier matter — a roughly $5.5 billion fund for merchants that accepted Visa or Mastercard between January 1, 2004 and January 25, 2019 — involved actual claim filing for money. You can read our coverage of that distinct deal in our $5.5 billion Visa and Mastercard merchant fees settlement. The Rule 23(b)(2) deal described here is a different track, about later conduct and rule changes rather than cash.

Merchants Are Still Objecting

The proposed rule changes remain controversial. Reuters reported that Walmart, the National Retail Federation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, and other objectors argued that the revised agreement still offers limited relief because merchants would remain unable to reject cards at the individual issuer level within a category. Reuters also reported that the National Association of Convenience Stores said the deal still does not repair what it views as a broken credit-card market. Visa and Mastercard have continued to defend the settlement as a practical resolution that gives merchants more flexibility.

What Happens Next

The settlement has preliminary approval, but final approval is still pending. Several case-administration details have not yet been publicly confirmed, including the official settlement website address, the deadline for merchants to file objections, and the date of the final approval hearing. The appended notice materials in the agreement still contained placeholder text for the website address and scheduling dates, so those should not be treated as final. We will update this page with the official notice website, the objection deadline, and the hearing date once the court and the class administrator publish them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Visa and Mastercard swipe-fee settlement real?
Yes. A federal judge granted preliminary approval on June 9, 2026 to the revised Rule 23(b)(2) settlement in the long-running payment-card antitrust case in the Eastern District of New York.

Is there a $38 billion settlement fund?
No cash fund for class members has been verified. The $38 billion figure is an expert estimate of merchant savings through 2031 from the rule and fee changes, not a pot of money to be paid out. The agreement says class members receive no money payments.

Can merchants or consumers file a claim?
No claim form has been identified. The agreement is structured as injunctive relief — rule changes — not a payout program. The class members are merchants and other entities that accepted the cards, not consumers who used them.

Who is included in the class?
All persons, businesses, and other entities that accepted Visa- and/or Mastercard-branded cards in the United States between December 18, 2020 and the date of preliminary settlement approval. No exclusions are permitted.

Is this the same as the older $5.5 billion payment-card settlement?
No. The earlier cash settlement involved merchants that accepted cards during a much earlier period, roughly 2004 to 2019, and paid money. This Rule 23(b)(2) deal concerns later conduct and provides rule changes rather than cash.

What happens next?
The settlement has preliminary approval; final approval is still pending. The official notice website, the objection deadline, and the final approval hearing date had not been publicly confirmed as of June 17, 2026. We will update this page when they are set.

Sources

Superseding and Amended Class Settlement Agreement of the Rule 23(b)(2) Class Plaintiffs and the Defendants, In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation, No. 05-md-01720 (BMC) (JAM) (E.D.N.Y.), dated November 10, 2025.
Reuters, "Visa, Mastercard reach revised swipe-fee settlement with merchants" (Nov. 10, 2025).
Reuters, "US judge reviews Visa, Mastercard $38 billion swipe-fee settlement" (Apr. 27, 2026).
Reuters, "US judge OKs Visa, Mastercard $38 billion swipe-fee settlement" (Jun. 9, 2026).
Reuters, "Walmart, other retailers object to Visa, Mastercard settlement" (Dec. 15, 2025).

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