With over 40 separate antitrust litigations filed against Visa and MasterCard, you would think that the credit card associations would be taking this matter seriously.
[As lead plantiffs and class representatives, the co-editors of The Credit Card Interchange Report - WayTooHigh.com were the first to file class-action antitrust litigation against the card associations and member banks on June 22, 2005 representing their companies, 30 Minute Photos Etc. and 30minphotos.com]
While uniting most merchants and consumers together against the banks, this multi-billion dollar antitrust case seems not to be very important to MasterCard, specifically. Even though economically this is the largest antitrust litigation since the AT&T case in the early 1980's, MasterCard has yet to update its website listing for merchant litigation. With the card association's interest in selling off ownership to the public, WayTooHigh.com is perplexed why they still have yet to modify their website since 2003?
Two more trade associations filed class action suits against Visa USA, MasterCard Inc. and member banks for their merchant interchange fees. The American Booksellers Association and the National Grocers Association and several of its members filed antitrust litigation on Monday.
[More info: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Nov 14]
