A federal judge today approved a settlement in the class action suit between merchants and card networks Visa and MasterCard over alleged fixing of merchant interchange fees. Retailers and industry associations immediately filed notice of an appeal, a Wall Street Journal report said.  

The ruling closes out the first round in a suit filed eight years ago by a coalition of merchants and retail trade groups. Plaintiffs alleged that swipe fees charged by the card networks were unreasonably high as the result of collusion by MasterCard and Visa.

The settlement calls for the card networks to pay $7.25 billion to the class in penalties, and indemnifies MasterCard and Visa against similar suits in the future.

Ruling Judge John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn called the ruling fair, and said that it did not shield the card networks from legal action over new rules, but simply released them from further claims based on pre-settlement conduct.

However, many retailers worry that this will not stop MasterCard and Visa from using the settlement to bar any future actions related to anti-competitive practices.

The ATM industry has also expressed concern that the networks might use the ruling as cover in any potential future disagreements with ATM deployers, even though they were not party to nor benefited by the class action suit.

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