Visa Inc. is planning to prepay the balance of a settlement it owes to U.S. merchants as part of a 2003 deal it struck to resolve the "honor-all-cards" antitrust lawsuit led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other major retailers.
The San Francisco payments company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday that it would pay $682 million, earning it a discount from the remaining $800 million it owes.
The plan is subject to court approval, and Visa said it would make the payment on Sept. 30 or the business day after the court order, whichever is later.
In 2003 Visa agreed to pay merchants approximately $2 billion over a 10-year period in equal annual installments of $200 million.
In July, MasterCard agreed to prepay $335 million of the remaining funds it owed merchants instead of paying $400 million over the next four years; MasterCard originally agreed to pay $1.025 billion to settle its part of the lawsuit.
