Visa, Mastercard to pay US$167.5 million in ATM user fee settlement

Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay a combined $167.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to keep ATM access fees artificially high. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

WASHINGTON — Visa and Mastercard have agreed to pay a combined $167.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to keep ATM access fees artificially high.

The proposed settlement was filed on Thursday in the federal district court in Washington and requires a judge’s approval.

The accord would pay potentially millions of ATM users who were charged an unreimbursed access fee to withdraw cash from independent, non-bank ATMs.

Visa would contribute about $88.8 million and Mastercard about $78.7 million to a settlement fund. The money would be distributed to eligible customers with qualifying ATM transactions made since October 2007.

Visa and Mastercard and lead attorneys for the consumers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit, one of three related cases in the D.C. federal court, was filed in 2011. Consumers challenged industry rules by Visa and Mastercard that allegedly blocked independent ATM operators from offering lower prices.

Visa and Mastercard denied any wrongdoing.

The two companies last year agreed to pay $197.5 million to resolve related claims from a different group of ATM users who claimed they were overcharged at bank-operated ATMs. Several banks in 2021 agreed to pay $66 million to settle claims against them in the litigation.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs in a court filing called the settlement “an excellent result in light of the risks of continued prosecution.” They said they plan to ask the court to award them up to 30% of the fund, or about $50 million, in legal fees.

A third lawsuit by independent ATM owners and operators is pending in the same court.

Visa faces other antitrust lawsuits, including one from the U.S. Justice Department lawsuit accusing it of illegally monopolizing the U.S. debit card market. It has denied the claims in that case.

(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario and Nick Zieminski)