On Friday, December 13^th, US District Judge John Gleeson approved the $5.7 billion class-action swipe fee settlement that has been in discussion since 2012.  This settlement is the offspring of private anti-trust litigation that was filed by NACS in 2005 against major credit card companies and banks.  The approved settlement was stated to be “woefully inadequate”, and therefore, NACS elected to opt out of the settlement.  Now that the settlement has been passed by Judge Gleeson, retailers are said to be left in worse shape than if they had just lost the trial.

This legal decision was very important to marketers, as credit-card swipe fees cost merchants and their customers an estimated $30 billion a year¹.  Now that the settlement has passed, merchants will be even less protected from unreasonable rates by the credit card companies.

Here is an excerpt of the response from NACS:

The proposed settlement would give merchants a limited right to surcharge that is too complex to implement and would allow the credit card companies to continue to set prices for their member banks. Furthermore, the proposed settlement would do nothing to give merchants competitive network routing choices, and also lock-in many anti-competitive activities of the credit card companies forever².

As a payment solutions company, we can only offer our condolences to the merchants whose livelihood is affected by this ruling.  We can also offer a solution to marketers who want to capture back the revenue lost to the major credit card companies.  The Intevacon Proprietary Fleet card allows marketers to offer their customers a payment solution with the capability to leverage card controls, a perfect way to increase loyalty with card holders.  Our rates give marketers an advantage and they also leave margin to reward fuel customers with discounts and other incentives.  Our Prepaid card nicely complements the function of the Fleet card by providing customers with a cash-based method of payment and the convenience of a card.  In all of our efforts, we aim to empower and partner with the marketer.

The petroleum industry fuels the nation’s activity.  At Intevacon, we aspire to equip our marketers with the best solutions and the best pricing to win at this endeavor.  For more information about our fleet and prepaid card solutions, view an introductory presentation here, or reach out at moreinfo@intevacon.com.

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