MasterCard and Visa Will Pay Billions to Settle Antitrust Suit

MasterCard and Visa Will Pay Billions to Settle Antitrust Suit

By JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG

Published: July 13, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/business/mastercard-and-visa-settle-antitrust-suit.html?_r=0

Retailers will be able to charge their customers more for paying with credit cards under the terms of a multibillion-dollar settlement announced late in the day on Friday.

MasterCard, Visa and major banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, agreed to pay more than $6 billion to settle accusations that they engaged in anticompetitive practices in payment processing.

The settlement is the culmination of a lawsuit brought in federal court on behalf of roughly seven million merchants in 2005. Merchants said that the companies engaged in price-fixing to charge high fees for processing credit and debit card payments.

MasterCard, Visa, JPMorgan Chase & Bank of America

Mark Schwartz is a director at MasterCard Incorporated, was George Soros senior adviser, and the president & CEO for Soros Fund Management.

Note: George Soros senior adviser was Mark Schwartz, is the founder of Soros Fund Management, and the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Suzanne Nora Johnson is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a director at Visa Inc.

Ellen V. Futter is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a director at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

A.W. Clausen was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the chairman & CEO for Bank of America Corp.