The National ATM Council Inc. and counsel MoginRubin LLP, a specialty antitrust law firm, disclosed that their lawsuit against Visa and Mastercard will move forward, following a July 25, 2023, decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Brought by a nationwide class of independent retail ATM owners and operators, the long-standing court case, National ATM Council Inc., et al. v. Visa Inc., et al., No. 1:11-CV-01803-RJL, initially filed Oct. 12, 2011, addresses what Jonathan Rubin, a partner at MoginRubin, alleged are inequities in ATM access fee rules.
"The decision, from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, was an affirmance of a decision in August 2021 by the district court in Washington, D.C. granting class certification to the independent ATM operators to pursue a case against Visa and Mastercard for anticompetitive rules relating to the setting of ATM surcharges," he said. "The rules prevent ATM operators from passing on the savings to cardholders when their ATM transactions are handled by an ATM network other than Visa or Mastercard."
Rubin additionally alleged that existing fee structures impede competition by allowing Visa and Mastercard to overcharge ATM operators for transaction fees. If the plaintiffs prevail, he added, the ATM operator class will ask the court to order the defendants to eliminate the unlawful rule and award damages in the amount of the aggregate overcharge.
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