Antitrust Law
ATM Trade Group Sues Visa and Mastercard, Alleging Price Fixing
The National ATM Council, a trade group, filed a federal lawsuit against Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. today alleging that the credit card companies engaged in price fixing.
The action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, maintains that the defendants established a uniform plan to “fix” ATM access fees, Bloomberg News reports.
“The ATM restraints prevent ATM operators from offering their customers a discount or benefit for completing a transaction over a network that is less costly to the ATM operator, so consumers cannot be rewarded for using a lower-cost and more efficient network,” the lawsuit states.
Spokesmen for Mastercard and Visa declined to comment on the case, Bloomberg reports.
