Visa and Mastercard are reportedly close to reaching an agreement with American merchants to reduce transaction fees and grant retailers more freedom in choosing which types of cards to accept, according to The Wall Street Journal, cited by News.ro.
The proposed deal would lower interchange fees—currently between 2% and 2.5% per transaction—by about 0.1 percentage points, gradually over several years. In addition, existing rules requiring merchants to accept all cards from a network if they accept one could be relaxed.
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The agreement, expected to be announced soon, would introduce separate categories of cards—such as rewards, non-rewards, and commercial—allowing merchants to decline certain types of cards depending on associated costs.
The negotiations aim to settle a lawsuit filed in 2005, in which merchants accused Visa and Mastercard of charging excessive fees and imposing restrictive rules that prevented them from steering customers toward cheaper payment methods.
Last year, the companies agreed to a $30 billion settlement, pledging to temporarily lower fees by 0.04 percentage points for three years and keep the average rate below current levels for five years.
Although Visa and Mastercard deny any wrongdoing, the new compromise may also include rules on surcharges applied to specific types of payments, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Photo: Money.co.uk
