Major retailers in USA have rejected an antitrust settlement and started a new action.

A group of some 30 retailers, including Amazon and 7-Eleven retailers, have rejected Visa's and MasterCard's $7.25 billion settlement over interchange and filed suit. In a complaint, they argue that once the card networks gained substantial market share over retailers, they forced merchants to pay higher interchange fees "to continue to fund these price-fixing schemes."

The new lawsuit is the latest in what is becoming a long string of legal actions. In May, a group of 17 retailers, including Target and Macy's opted out of the interchange settlement and filed a lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard. CVS also filed a separate lawsuit. The card networks then filed a lawsuit of their own against some retailers and trade associations. Additionally, Wal-Mart, Costco and 17 other retailers opted out of the interchange settlement and said at the time that they might also seek legal action which prompted Visa to sue Wal-Mart in June due to concerns that the retailer would file a complaint.

More than 7,000 retailers have dropped out of the settlement, over concerns that it gives the card networks too much power. Given the overwhelming negative response by retailers, as well as the multitude of lawsuits, it is highly questionable whether the interchange settlement will receive final approval in September.

In Europe IC also under attack
Earlier this year, Visa Europe pledged to cut its inter-bank fees significantly for cross-border credit card payments and reform its rules following an anti-trust investigation by the European Commission. Under the proposals, Visa will slash its fees by up to 60% to 0.3% of the value of cross-border transactions.

The Commission has recently opened new proceedings against MasterCard to get them to reduce their inter-regional inter-bank fees and cross-border acquiring fees.