Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are facing a new, proposed class action from small business owners who allege the credit card giants conspired with banks to improperly hike transaction fees on purchases made on Square Inc.'s devices.
Hiking the “interchange” fees, which are charged by the credit card companies when customers swipe their cards using a Square device and ultimately passed onto merchants, violates 26 states’ antitrust laws, according to the complaint, filed Wedneday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York,.
“The Interchange Fee is purely a toll that the credit-card issuing banks, in a ...