Visa-Mastercard settlement’s claims administrator to issue quarterly status report for merchants

Merchants participating in the $5.5 billion Visa and Mastercard interchange-fee settlement will soon be able to monitor claim processing through periodic public reporting, as the claims administrator prepares a new quarterly status report covering key stages of the settlement work. The arrangement is aimed at giving claim holders more transparency after months of complaints that they had little insight into how long specific disputes and research requests were taking.

Payments Dive reported that class counsel for merchant plaintiffs told the court they expect the first quarterly report, prepared by Epiq, to be ready for review by the court by July 10. The report is intended to document data points that affect whether a claim can move to payment, including the status of fee-related disputes and ongoing review work. Class counsel also indicated there is significant “data-work” required to stand up the agreed reporting categories, and that the timing could depend on whether Epiq needs additional preparation time.

The settlement stems from a long-running antitrust case in which merchants alleged that the card networks charged excessive interchange fees for credit and debit card transactions. The merchant class, as described in the reporting, includes any U.S. business that accepted Visa and/or Mastercard-branded cards between Jan. 1, 2004 and Jan. 25, 2019. Claim forms were sent to about 18.6 million merchants, with a claims deadline in February 2025.

In the quarterly reporting framework, the report categories are expected to include details such as how many claims have tax identification numbers (TINs) in dispute, how many claim research requests are pending, how many disputed TINs remain with a special master appointed to resolve certain claim conflicts, and how much money has already been distributed to merchants. A TIN is the tax identifier that claim administrators use to match claims to the correct business, and disputes over TIN information can delay eligibility decisions.

The push for more structured reporting follows a dispute over the cadence and detail of transparency. In the same litigation, a magistrate judge previously denied a request for detailed monthly reporting, but directed the parties to negotiate “periodic public reporting” that would provide better insight into how Epiq processes claims. The reporting shift therefore reflects an incremental compromise rather than a move to fully granular, monthly disclosures.

Progress on payments has continued, though not uniformly for all merchants. Payments Dive reported that the administrator has paid about $414 million to roughly 598,000 merchants as part of an initial partial distribution. Plaintiffs asked the court for approval of a second disbursement totaling at least $182 million for about 84,000 claimants. The pace matters because merchants are generally paid based on their pro rata share of the settlement fund, meaning the amount is proportional to the merchant’s transaction-based fees relative to the overall class.

Separately, the Payments Dive report notes that part of the litigation focused on injunctive relief, not money damages, is still pending in Brooklyn federal court. That means even as monetary claim processing moves forward through a settlement administration process, other legal issues related to future network rules may still be under court consideration.