Overview
- Visa and Mastercard proposed a new settlement in their two-decade interchange case after a prior deal was rejected.
- The plan would trim average credit card interchange by about 0.1 percentage point for five years and cap standard consumer rates at 1.25% for eight years.
- Merchants could choose not to accept higher‑tier Visa or Mastercard products or add surcharges of up to 3% where permitted by law and network rules.
- Major retail groups, including the National Retail Federation, publicly opposed the proposal as insufficient.
- The deal excludes American Express and debit cards, and any effects on checkout or rewards would occur only if a Brooklyn federal court approves the agreement.