Businesses throughout Canada may be able to claim hundreds of dollars in credit card processing fees dating back decades following a class action settlement involving VISA and Mastercard.
If you accepted payments from either of these cards between March 23, 2001, and September 2, 2021, you must submit a claim by September 30, 2022, in order to participate in the settlement.
These class action suits surfaced in Canada, claiming specific banking institutions, as well as VISA and Mastercard, conspired to set higher interchange fees; fees paid by merchants and collected by banks, as well as imposed rules restricting a merchant’s ability to surcharge or refuse higher cost VISA and Mastercard credit cards.
Settlements totalling $188 CAD million were eventually reached between the banks and credit card institutions. Visa and Mastercard agreed to modify their no-surcharge rules to allow merchants to surcharge up to a cap, and to ensure this ability to surcharge remains in effect for a minimum of five years.
The settlement will be divided into three funds – small, medium, and large merchant funds, with the claim per year amount increasing from $5 million to over $20 million based on the merchant’s average yearly revenue. Settlement members have the opportunity to receive between $30-$250 per claim amount.
Click here for more information on how to submit a claim.
