Visa/Mastercard Settlement Update: $5.54B Payout and $38B Deal

Here’s where things stand on the Visa and Mastercard swipe-fee settlement as of mid-2026: the $5.54 billion damages fund is paying out, with about $414 million distributed to roughly 598,000 merchants so far, and a separate, revised $38 billion deal to change the card networks’ rules going forward received preliminary court approval on June 9, 2026. The claim-filing window for the damages fund closed on February 4, 2025, so no new claims are being accepted. The injunctive-relief deal still faces objections from major retail groups and is not yet final.¹²

The two tracks are related but separate. One is money already owed for past interchange fees. The other is a set of forward-looking rule and rate changes. They’re moving on different timelines, and merchants can be affected by both.

Status of the $5.54 Billion Damages Payout

The damages fund covers any person, business, or entity that accepted Visa or Mastercard in the United States between January 1, 2004, and January 25, 2019.³ Each eligible merchant gets a pro rata share based on the interchange fees attributable to their transactions during that window.⁴ Because total interchange fees paid across the class far exceed the settlement amount, every merchant receives a fraction of what they actually paid.

Class counsel moved for an initial partial distribution on August 20, 2025, and the court granted the motion on October 30, 2025.⁵ By June 2026, roughly $414 million had reached approximately 598,000 merchants. Nearly $5 billion still sits in the fund.⁴

A second round is in motion. Plaintiffs have asked the court to approve at least $182 million for about 84,000 additional claimants. Around 96,000 merchants were initially left out of round one because of naming discrepancies; the settlement administrator, Epiq, has since cleared roughly 75,000 of them for a future payout worth about $125 million. Another 8,400 merchants have been cleared for roughly $56.2 million after tax identification number issues were resolved.¹

The fund isn’t paying out faster for a few reasons. More than 500,000 claims remain in a multi-step dispute process over fee data. Roughly $1.5 billion sits idle with no public timeline for release, and about $3.35 billion is being held in reserve pending the outcome of two separate lawsuits brought by class members with their own claims. Third-party firms that help merchants file have pushed for detailed monthly progress reports from Epiq; Magistrate Judge Joseph Marutollo denied one such request but directed the parties to discuss whether periodic public reporting is workable.⁶

How to Check the Status of Your Claim

If you filed by the February 4, 2025 deadline, you can track your claim through the Merchant Portal at PaymentCardSettlement.com. After you log in, the Account Summary page shows three fields: Authorization Status, Claim Status, and Payment Status.⁵ The payment status values mean the following:

Ready for Payment: the claim is approved and you can pick a payment method (check, ACH, or another option).
Election Made: you’ve chosen a method, or a default was applied.
Paid: payment has been issued.
Blank: the claim wasn’t included in the first distribution. Possible reasons include missing documentation, unresolved disputes, an estimated payment under $5.00, or late filing.⁴

If your status is blank, you can submit a Research Request or upload additional sales data through the portal to try to resolve the discrepancy. Check the Correspondence section as well, since it holds any deadlines specific to your claim. For questions the site doesn’t answer, the Class Administrator can be reached at 1-800-625-6440.⁵

One boundary worth naming: if you didn’t file a claim by February 4, 2025, you can’t file one now. New claims are no longer being accepted.⁴

The Revised $38 Billion Deal and What It Changes

The second track is about changing how the card networks operate going forward. On June 9, 2026, U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan of the Eastern District of New York granted preliminary approval to a substantially revised settlement. Plaintiffs’ experts estimate it could save merchants $38 billion by 2031, with total estimated benefits of $224 billion for merchants and consumers combined.² The main terms:

Visa and Mastercard will lower interchange rates by ten basis points (0.1 percentage points) for five years.⁷
Standard consumer card rates will be capped at no more than 1.25% for eight years.²
The “honor all cards” rule ends. Merchants will be able to choose whether to accept specific categories of cards, split into commercial, premium consumer (including most rewards cards), and standard consumer.⁸
Merchants gain broader ability to add surcharges on higher-cost credit cards or offer discounts for cheaper payment methods.²

Judge Cogan called the settlement “fair, reasonable, and adequate” and said he was likely to grant final approval, while acknowledging it was not “perfect.”² No date has been set for final approval.

Why an Earlier Version Was Thrown Out

The revised deal is the second attempt. In March 2024, the parties proposed what was framed as a $30 billion settlement featuring a seven-basis-point fee cut for five years.² Chief Judge Margo Brodie denied preliminary approval on June 25, 2024. She found the proposed surcharging reforms were of limited use to many merchants because multiple states either ban surcharging or impose requirements that make it impractical, and she raised concerns that the injunctive relief wouldn’t uniformly benefit all class members and that the mandatory, non-opt-out structure of the injunctive class raised adequacy-of-representation problems.⁹ The case was reassigned from Judge Brodie to Judge Cogan on September 5, 2025.¹⁰

Opposition and What Comes Next

Major retail groups remain against the revised deal. The National Retail Federation, the National Association of Convenience Stores, and the Merchants Payments Coalition have all spoken out against it. Walmart went further, calling it a “gift” to the card networks that would entrench anticompetitive practices for more than 30 years without challenge from large retailers.¹¹

Critics argue the deal still doesn’t address the costs of accepting rewards cards, which make up the bulk of cards in circulation. Industry advocates have also noted that banks could potentially reclassify cards between categories, weakening the new right to refuse certain card types.⁸ NACS General Counsel Doug Kantor said “many more objections” would be filed, and both the NRF and NACS have indicated they plan further legal challenges.²

The numbers behind the fight are large. In 2025, Visa and Mastercard collected $118.8 billion in U.S. swipe fees, up from $111.2 billion in 2024.¹¹ Against those totals, opponents argue that a temporary ten-basis-point reduction is a modest concession from networks whose fees keep climbing.

For merchants, the practical takeaway splits cleanly. On the damages side, either your claim is in the pipeline or the deadline has passed; the portal is where you find out which. On the injunctive side, nothing changes yet. The rate cut, the rate cap, and the new ability to refuse certain card categories don’t take effect unless and until the court grants final approval, and that decision is still pending.

1
Payments Dive. Visa Mastercard Swipe Fee Fund Has Paid $414M
2
Reuters. U.S. Judge OKs Visa Mastercard $38 Billion Swipe Fee Settlement
3
Justia Law. In Re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation
4
Payment Card Settlement. Frequently Asked Questions
5
Payment Card Settlement. Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement
6
PaymentWeek. Visa Mastercard Swipe Fee Fund Has Paid $414M
7
Payments Dive. Visa Mastercard Reach Legal Pact With Merchants
8
Progressive Grocer. Visa Mastercard Offer Revised Swipe Fee Settlement
9
Merchants Payments Coalition. Court Opinion on Settlement Rejection
10
CourtListener. In Re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation Docket
11
Journal Record. U.S. Judge Approves Visa Mastercard $38 Billion Settlement