Visa and MasterCard have issued a retaliatory law-suit aginst trade associations and retailers that have rejected a $7.2 billion class action interchange settlement.
The settlement - believed to be the largest ever in a private antitrust case under the US Sherman Act - was agreed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn last July.
The deal, agreed by law firms acting on behalf of class action plaintiffs, has since been rejected by a host of top retailers and trade groups, who have counter-sued the card schemes in search of heftier fines and deeper reforms.
According to Bloomberg, Visa, MasterCard and several banks said in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, that their suit is "necessary to prevent the continuation of endless, wasteful litigation." They seek to bar the trade groups and retailers from seeking antitrust damages for the fee practices.
Parties targeted by the suit include the National Association of Convenience Stores, the National Grocers Association, the National Restaurant Association, Affiliated Foods Midwest Cooperative and D'Agostino Supermarkets Inc.
A group of 19 large retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores, Costco and Starbucks last week announced plans to boycott the previously agreed settlement which they claimed violated their legal rights by prohibiting further legal action against the credit-card networks for alleged anticompetitive behavior in the future. A group of 17 retailers led by Target filed their own lawsuit on May 23 in Manhattan federal court seeking damages for the swipe fees.