The Visa and Mastercard interchange fee settlement is a $5.54 billion antitrust fund for U.S. merchants who accepted Visa- or Mastercard-branded cards between January 1, 2004, and January 25, 2019.1Payment Card Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions – Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement The deadline to file a claim was February 4, 2025, and it has passed. Merchants who filed on time began receiving initial partial payments in late 2025 after the court approved a distribution motion on October 30, 2025.
Who Was Covered
The class swept in every person, business, or entity that accepted Visa or Mastercard in the United States during the roughly 15-year class period. More than 12 million merchants qualified. Membership was automatic unless the merchant filed a written exclusion request.2Payment Card Settlement. Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement
A few groups sat outside the class: the U.S. government, the defendants and their directors, officers, and family members, and financial institutions that issued the cards or processed transactions for the networks during the class period.
Because the February 4, 2025 filing deadline has passed, no new claims are being accepted. If you did not submit a claim by that date, you cannot recover from this fund. If you did file, you remain in line for a payment.
How Much Each Merchant Gets
The $5.54 billion fund is much smaller than the total interchange fees the class paid over 15 years, so payments are not a dollar-for-dollar refund. Each award is calculated as a percentage of the merchant’s estimated interchange fees during the class period.1Payment Card Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions – Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement
The claims administrator uses transaction data from Visa, Mastercard, and the bank defendants to estimate each merchant’s fees between January 2004 and January 2019. Where that data is missing or disputed, the merchant’s own records fill the gap. The final percentage depends on the total value of all valid claims, administrative costs, court-approved attorney fees, and payments to the named class plaintiffs.
The practical effect: small businesses with modest card volumes receive proportionally small checks. Larger merchants receive more, but still well below their actual interchange costs over the 15-year window.
When Payments Are Going Out
Initial partial payments began going out in late 2025 on a rolling basis after the court’s October 30, 2025 distribution order. These first payments cover only a portion of each claimant’s total award. The administrator is holding back funds because claim review is still in progress and enough money needs to remain to cover every approved claim. A later distribution will pay the remaining balances once all claims are resolved.
If you filed a claim, you can check its status through the Merchant Portal at PaymentCardSettlement.com. The Account Summary page shows authorization status, review status, and whether a payment has been issued.
Are the Payments Taxable?
Yes, in almost every case. Under federal tax law, gross income includes income from all sources unless a specific exemption applies.3Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments The IRS looks at what a settlement payment was intended to replace. Here, the payment compensates a merchant for overcharges on a business expense, so it functions as ordinary business income. It does not fall into a tax-exempt category like damages for physical injury.
Merchants who receive $600 or more should expect a Form 1099-MISC, with the amount typically reported in Box 3, “Other Income.”4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC Plan for the tax and file the settlement correspondence with records for the year the payment arrives, not the year the claim was filed.
The Surcharging Rights That Came With the Settlement
The settlement had two parts: the money and a set of rule changes. The rule changes modified Visa and Mastercard’s network policies that had barred merchants from adding a fee to credit card transactions. Merchants can now surcharge credit card purchases at checkout, subject to caps and disclosure requirements. Debit and prepaid card transactions cannot be surcharged, even when the customer selects “credit” at the terminal instead of entering a PIN.5Visa. U.S. Merchant Surcharge Q and A
What the Network Rules Require
Visa and Mastercard cap surcharges at the merchant’s actual cost of accepting the card, called the merchant discount rate. If that rate is higher than 4%, the surcharge is still capped at 4% of the transaction.6Visa. Surcharging Credit Cards – Q&A for Merchants7Mastercard. Mastercard Credit Card Surcharge Rules and Fees for Merchants
Before starting to surcharge, a merchant must notify its payment processor at least 30 days in advance.8Visa. Merchant Surcharging Considerations and Requirements At the point of sale, signage must appear at store entrances and at checkout disclosing the surcharge. The surcharge has to show up as a separate line item on every receipt. Online sellers face the same rules: disclose before checkout and itemize separately.
State Law Still Overrides in Some Places
The settlement changed the card networks’ private rules. It did not override state law. Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts have statutes that flatly ban credit card surcharging. New York’s law has been interpreted in ways that effectively prohibit it as well. In those states, merchants cannot surcharge no matter what the network rules allow. Other states have surcharge restrictions on the books, and court challenges have created a patchwork where practical legality depends on recent rulings. Check the current law in every state you operate in before turning on a surcharge program.
What the Case Was About
The underlying lawsuit alleged that Visa, Mastercard, and their member banks violated federal antitrust law by collectively setting interchange fees, the “swipe fees” a merchant’s bank pays the card issuer on every transaction. The class argued this amounted to price-fixing that enriched issuing banks at merchants’ expense.9Justia. In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust, No. 20-339 (2d Cir. 2023) The complaint also challenged network rules, including the “No-Surcharge Rule,” that stopped merchants from adding a fee on card transactions or steering customers to cheaper payment methods. The $5.54 billion payment resolved the damages claims; the rule changes resolved the conduct claims. At the time of approval, it stood among the largest antitrust class-action settlements in U.S. history.