American multinational retailer Wal-Mart has, reportedly, filed a lawsuit against Visa accusing it for partnering with banks to illegally fix interchange fees for merchants.
The move by Wal-Mart came after it was sued by Visa in summer 2013 for not coming in terms with the $7.25bn class action settlement between the US retailers and Visa and MasterCard over credit card interchange fees in July 2012.
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According to Wal-Mart, Visa and banks have imposed interchange and network fees of over $350m on American merchants and consumers during the period from 1 January 2004 to 27 November 2012.
Wal-Mart, which now filed a case in the US District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, said not only have Visa and the banks conspired to fix fees, but have also conspired to enact rules preventing Wal-Mart from protecting itself against the fees.
The court filing also reads that banks have decided not to compete with each other for merchant acceptance and engaged with Visa in illegal monopolisation.
Wal-Mart said it continues to oppose the proposed credit card interchange-fee settlement.
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By GlobalData"If the settlement is approved, merchants would be broadly deprived of their rights to take action against the credit card networks for future damaging acts. Innovation around new payment technologies stands to be stifled, and consumers would face continually increasing hidden swipe fees, which already cost them tens of billions of dollars each year," Wal-Mart added.
