Visa, Mastercard, Banks Hit with Antitrust Suit Over Card Fees
Original: Visa, Mastercard, Major Banks Facing New Litigation over 'Anticompetitive' Fees
Why This Matters
A $100B annual fee market under antitrust fire signals major merchant payment cost exposure.
A San Diego pizzeria filed a 134-page class action on Sept. 30, 2026, alleging Visa, Mastercard, and five major banks conspired to artificially inflate merchant credit card fees, which now exceed $100 billion annually.
A proposed class action filed in New York federal court (1:26-cv-06087) by The Pizza Standard LLC targets Visa, Mastercard, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase Bank, Citibank, and Wells Fargo, accusing them of decades-long collusion to fix interchange fees merchants pay on every credit card transaction.
The 134-page complaint invokes the Sherman Antitrust Act, arguing the defendants built a 'web of anticompetitive rules' that effectively forces merchants accepting any Visa or Mastercard to accept all cards regardless of cost. This structure, the suit claims, kills any incentive for issuing banks to compete on price. Merchants are also allegedly blocked from steering customers toward cheaper payment options—for example, by surcharging specific card types.
The result, according to the filing, is that merchants now pay over $100 billion per year in fees—described as 'monopoly rents' that 'no competitive market would produce.' The suit presses forward despite a prior class action settlement exceeding $5 billion over substantially the same alleged conduct, arguing the anticompetitive restraints remain firmly in place.