Supreme Court Drops Appeal by Credit Card Companies and Banks
November 17 2016 - 6:23PM
Dow Jones News
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would no
longer consider an appeal by Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and several
banks that sought to challenge lawsuits alleging they conspired to
set anticompetitive ATM fees.
In a brief written order, the court said it was removing the
case from its docket because the companies were now focusing on
issues in their main case briefs that weren't part of their earlier
petition that persuaded the court to take the case.
The case had been scheduled for oral arguments in December.
Visa and Mastercard didn't immediately respond to requests for
comment.
The ATM litigation focused on rules for access fees that prevent
independent ATM operators from setting lower charges for banking
transactions processed on networks other than Visa and
MasterCard.
The plaintiffs in the case were consumers and operators of
independent ATMs, such as those found in bars and convenience
stories. They claimed banks including Bank of America Corp. , J.P.
Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to the fee
rules when Visa and MasterCard were owned as joint ventures by the
banks.
Even after the bank card associations went public in 2008 and
2006, the substance of the ATM rules remained the same, challengers
alleged.
A Washington, D.C., appeals court revived the lawsuits last year
after a trial judge previously ruled the allegations weren't strong
enough to proceed.
By dropping its review of the case, the Supreme Court let that
appeals court ruling stand.
Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 17, 2016 19:08 ET (00:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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