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A settlement between Visa, Mastercard, and merchants over a 20-year legal battle is crossing for the first time a red line for the credit-card industry by breaking the networks’ rule that forces a store that accepts one Visa credit card to accept all Visa credit cards. No longer would merchants have to “honor all cards,” instead they can reject credit cards that charge merchants bigger fees for each transaction, a concession Visa, Mastercard and banks have balked at for ages.
Still, the agreement could face more challenges in court. A deal last year crumbled when a judge rejected it after some merchant lawyers objected. Early indications from lawyers representing big merchants and merchant trade groups is that this settlement doesn’t go far enough—and a 20-year legal battle might not yet be over.
