The Visa and Mastercard interchange fee settlement is a $5.54 billion antitrust payout to U.S. merchants who accepted the cards between January 1, 2004 and January 25, 2019. About $414 million has reached roughly 598,000 merchants in the first round of checks, which started going out in February 2026. Roughly $5 billion is still in the fund, and a large portion of it is frozen while two appeals work their way through the Second Circuit.
If you filed a claim by the February 4, 2025 deadline, your money is coming in waves rather than one lump sum. Here is what determines whether you qualify, how your share is calculated, and why full distribution is taking so long.
Who Qualifies for a Payout
The settlement class covers all persons, businesses, and entities that accepted Visa or Mastercard branded cards in the United States at any time from January 1, 2004 through January 25, 2019.1PaymentCardSettlement.com. Frequently Asked Questions That reaches more than 10 million merchants, from single-location shops to national chains.
Several categories are shut out:
- The U.S. government.
- Named defendants in the case, along with their directors, officers, and family members.
- Financial institutions that issued Visa or Mastercard cards, or that processed Visa or Mastercard transactions, during the class period.
- Plaintiffs that previously settled and dismissed their own individual lawsuits against the defendants.2PaymentCardSettlement.com. Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement
The court-approved deadline to file was February 4, 2025, and late claims are not guaranteed consideration.1PaymentCardSettlement.com. Frequently Asked Questions If you did not file by then, you are almost certainly out, even if you fit the class definition.
One boundary worth flagging: whether certain merchants in layered payment arrangements qualify at all is still being fought over on appeal. If you took card payments through Square, Intuit, or a branded gas station arrangement, your eligibility may depend on how those appeals come out. More on that below.
How Your Payment Is Calculated
No one is getting a dollar-for-dollar refund of the interchange fees they paid. The total interchange charged to all class members during the 15-year class period dwarfs $5.54 billion, so each merchant receives a pro rata share — a percentage of their estimated interchange fees during the covered years.
That percentage depends on how many valid claims come in, the total interchange tied to those claims, administrative costs, taxes, attorney fees, and court-approved service awards. The claims administrator, Epiq, used existing Visa and Mastercard transaction data to estimate each merchant’s fees. When that data was missing or disputed, merchants had to supply their own records: interchange fees paid, merchant discount fees, merchant category codes, and total Visa and Mastercard transaction volume.1PaymentCardSettlement.com. Frequently Asked Questions
To qualify for the first round of checks, a claim had to be timely, carry sufficient proof that the person filing had authority to do so, have a verified tax identification number without conflicts, and produce an estimated payment value of at least $5.00. Claims missing interchange fee data, caught up in a pending dispute, valued under $5.00, or flagged for auditing were held back from the first distribution.3PaymentCardSettlement.com. Frequently Asked Questions – Initial Payment Eligibility
If you received a first-round check, that is not your final award. Recipients will eventually get the difference between what they already received and their final pro rata share once all claims are processed and the outstanding legal fights resolve.4PaymentCardSettlement.com. Frequently Asked Questions – Future Payments
When the Money Is Going Out
Class counsel moved for an initial partial distribution on August 20, 2025. Judge Brian Cogan approved it on October 30, 2025, and the first payments began reaching merchants in February 2026.2PaymentCardSettlement.com. Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement That first distribution totaled roughly $414 million to about 598,000 merchants whose claims were not contested.5Payments Dive. Visa-Mastercard Swipe Fee Fund Has Paid $414M
About $5 billion remains in the fund.6PaymentCardSettlement.com. Frequently Asked Questions – Remaining Funds A motion for a second partial distribution was filed on May 26, 2026, asking for at least $182 million to pay about 84,000 additional claimants.7PaymentCardSettlement.com. Document Library
Why Most of the Fund Is Still Frozen
Roughly $3.35 billion of the settlement fund is being held back because of two appeals pending before the Second Circuit. Both turn on the same question: in a layered payment arrangement, who actually “accepted” Visa and Mastercard cards and therefore counts as a class member?5Payments Dive. Visa-Mastercard Swipe Fee Fund Has Paid $414M
Payment Facilitators Like Square and Intuit
The first dispute asks whether the small businesses using a Square card reader are the class members, or whether Square itself — the entity with the direct processing relationship — holds that status. The Second Circuit heard oral argument on November 20, 2025, and the case is still under review.8CourtListener. In Re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust The court ordered trust accounts set up to protect the interests of potential claimants on both sides while the appeal plays out.9Verisave. Payment Card Interchange Class Action Partial Distribution Update The same question applies to merchants using Intuit.
Branded Gas Stations
The second dispute involved stations operating under major brand names like Shell, Chevron, and BP. These retailers argued that their fuel suppliers processed the transactions, making the stations indirect purchasers outside the class.
In Old Jericho Enterprise v. Visa, decided May 4, 2026, the Second Circuit rejected that position. The court held there is no rigid “direct-payor” test for class membership, and that contracts and the practical reality that station employees swipe customer cards showed these retailers accepted cards within the meaning of the settlement. Because they did not opt out of the 2019 settlement, their later state-law antitrust claims were barred.10Buchalter. Old Jericho Enterprise v. Visa: Second Circuit Holds Branded Gasoline Retailers Bound by Payment Card Settlement Release For branded gas station operators, the practical takeaway is that they are inside the class and should be paid as such.
Why Claims Processing Has Been Slow
The scale alone has been punishing. Epiq processed roughly 80 billion rows of data across 180 files, totaling over 110 terabytes, in a payment-card-industry-compliant environment.11Epiq Global. Payment Card Interchange Fee Case Study The first disbursement came a full year after the claims deadline, and that pace has drawn criticism from merchants waiting to be paid.
More than 500,000 merchant claims remain in a multi-step dispute process, according to Cascade Settlement Services, which asked the court to order Epiq to file detailed public monthly progress reports. Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo denied that motion but directed the parties to discuss periodic public reporting and update the court.5Payments Dive. Visa-Mastercard Swipe Fee Fund Has Paid $414M
Fraudulent, incomplete, and noncompliant claims — many solicited by third-party claim filers — have slowed things further. Roughly 96,000 merchants were initially left out of the first payment round because of name discrepancies between their claims and Visa and Mastercard’s records. Epiq has since cleared about 75,000 of those after auditing. Another 8,400 merchants were cleared after resolving tax identification number issues.5Payments Dive. Visa-Mastercard Swipe Fee Fund Has Paid $414M In March 2025, the court issued a separate order specifically addressing third-party claims filing services.2PaymentCardSettlement.com. Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement
Judge Cogan reappointed James Orenstein as special master for a second two-year term to resolve disputes and conflicts arising from the claims process. A revised order of appointment was filed on June 1, 2026.7PaymentCardSettlement.com. Document Library
A Separate Settlement Over the Rules, Not the Money
Alongside the $5.54 billion damages settlement is a separate case that would change Visa and Mastercard’s business rules rather than cut checks. Barry’s Cut Rate Stores, Inc. v. Visa, Inc. was certified as a mandatory non-opt-out class in September 2021.12Merchants Payments Coalition. Memorandum and Order, Barry’s Cut Rate Stores v. Visa
On March 25, 2024, plaintiffs announced a proposed five-year settlement with Visa and Mastercard. The networks would reduce average interchange rates on domestic credit transactions by at least seven basis points and cut all posted interchange rates by a minimum of four basis points for three years.13Davis Wright Tremaine. Visa Mastercard Interchange Fee Settlement Terms Merchants would gain new rights to surcharge Visa and Mastercard transactions at either the brand or product level, capped at 3% if applied equally across all card brands or 1% if applied selectively. The deal would also let merchants form buying groups to negotiate collectively and decline specific digital wallets at physical locations.
The district court denied preliminary approval of that version in late June 2024, finding the relief inadequate.12Merchants Payments Coalition. Memorandum and Order, Barry’s Cut Rate Stores v. Visa A revised version was submitted, and as of June 2026 the court has granted preliminary approval of that revised deal. The Retail Industry Leaders Association publicly opposed it, calling the relief “illusory” and arguing the settlement was negotiated by small businesses rather than major retailers while leaving merchants no ability to opt out.14RILA. Retailers Object to Credit Card Settlement
This rules-change case will not put money in your account, but if finalized it would affect what you pay going forward and what you can tell customers about card costs.
Checking Your Claim Status
Merchants who filed can check authorization, claim, and payment status through the Merchant Portal at PaymentCardSettlement.com. The settlement website is the primary source for distribution updates, and the administrator has stated it will not provide timeline information by phone or email before posting it to the site.1PaymentCardSettlement.com. Frequently Asked Questions If your first-round payment was delayed because of a name or TIN mismatch, that is the place to confirm whether the audit has cleared you for the next distribution.