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Visa and Mastercard are reportedly close to reaching a long-awaited settlement with U.S. merchants that could lower the transaction fees retailers pay and give them more control over which types of credit cards they accept. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the agreement would end a legal dispute dating back to 2005 and mark a major shift in how payment networks manage interchange, or “swipe,” fees.
Under the proposed deal, Visa and Mastercard would reduce interchange fees — typically ranging between 2% and 2.5% per transaction — by roughly 0.1 percentage point on average over several years. The companies are also expected to ease the “honor all cards” rule, which currently forces merchants that accept one card type from a network to accept all of them, including premium rewards cards with higher fees. This change could allow retailers to decline higher-cost cards and promote cheaper payment options for consumers.
The settlement discussions include dividing credit card acceptance into multiple categories, such as rewards cards, no-reward cards, and commercial cards. Additionally, the agreement could impact surcharging policies, potentially giving merchants more flexibility to add fees for certain transactions, sources told the Journal.
This latest effort follows a massive $30 billion settlement reached last year, where Visa and Mastercard agreed to cap merchant card fees by reducing swipe rates by at least 0.04 percentage points for three years and maintaining rates below current levels for five years. Both companies have consistently denied wrongdoing in these cases.
Merchants have long argued that high swipe fees and restrictive anti-steering rules have inflated costs and limited their ability to guide customers toward lower-cost payment methods. The anticipated settlement, if finalized, could bring meaningful relief to retailers and reshape how credit card transactions operate across the U.S. payment ecosystem.
