Today (November 10, 2025), credit card company Visa (NYSE:V) has issued a statement a potential legal settlement in the Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation. The settlement includes rival Mastercard.
Visa states that the proposed settlement with US merchants of all sizes would provide meaningful relief, more flexibility and options to control how they accept payments from their customers.
The terms of the settlement include:
• Credit surcharging. Merchants will have more options to surcharge, including if they do not surcharge other credit networks.
• Honor All Cards. Merchants will be able to choose whether to accept US credit cards in distinct categories—commercial, premium consumer, and standard consumer.
• Lower interchange. The settlement provides for a reduction of the US combined average effective credit interchange rate by 10 bps for five years.
• Interchange rate certainty. The settlement will cap posted US credit interchange rates for five years.
Standard US consumer credit rates will be capped at 125 bps through the term of the agreement, and a new merchant education program about payment acceptance and cost management will be available to merchants.
WSJ shared a comment from Visa that said the 20-year litigation has resolved into the “best resolution for all parties.”
Meanwhile, new technologies may be part of the equation as payments and transfer fees may be compelled to drop further as competition rises.
The settlement is said to be subject to the court’s approval.