SAN FRANCISCO – Visa Inc. said it will prepay $682 million to U.S. merchants to complete a settlement of a 2003 antitrust case, paying early to get a discount from the $800 million it had owed through 2012.
Visa and lawyers representing the merchants in class-action suit over fees announced the agreement, subject to court approval, on Monday.
As part of the antitrust case, Visa agreed to pay $2 billion over a period of 10 years, in equal annual installments of $200 million to a group of merchants, headed by Wal-Mart stores. MasterCard agreed last month to prepay its obligations in the suit at a discount.
The case is separate from another antitrust suit in which Visa and MasterCard agreed to pay American Express almost $4 billion and Discover Financial Services $2.75 billion over the so-called exclusionary clauses which prevented Visa or MasterCard issuers from also offering the competitors’ cards.
Credit unions own billions of dollars of stock in Visa and MasterCard as a result of the public offerings of the two card companies, which are the only stocks credit unions are authorized to own.
