New Swipe Fee Lawsuit Against Visa and Mastercard

What was filed

According to ClassAction.org, The Pizza Standard LLC filed the case, The Pizza Standard LLC v. Visa Inc. et al., case number 1:26-cv-06087, on September 30, 2026 in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey. The named defendants include Visa entities, Mastercard entities, Bank of America, Chase Bank USA and JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Capital One and Paymentech. The case is brought under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

What the complaint alleges

As reported, the complaint alleges that the defendants used a web of network rules that prevent merchants from negotiating card fees and remove the incentive for banks to compete on them, which it says keeps merchant fees artificially high. It also claims merchants pay more than $100 billion a year in these fees. These are the plaintiff's allegations. The defendants have not been found liable for anything, and the court has not ruled on the claims or on whether the case can proceed as a class action.

Who the proposed class covers

The proposed class, as reported, is all individuals, businesses and entities that accepted Visa-branded or Mastercard-branded credit cards in the United States from January 25, 2019 until the alleged anticompetitive effects end. A proposed class is only what the plaintiff asks for. A court decides whether a class is certified and who is in it. If that happens, class members are usually notified. You do not need to do anything today to stay eligible, and you should be wary of anyone asking for a fee to sign you up.

What it means for your business today

Nothing changes at your counter. Your processing fees are set by your agreement with your processor and are what your statement says they are. Card fee cases can take years. The best protection you have right now does not depend on any lawsuit: know your effective rate, which is your total processing fees divided by your total card sales, and keep your statements. Records matter if a settlement ever asks merchants to show their card volume.

What you can do now

1. Download and keep your monthly processing statements, ideally back to 2019 if your processor still has them. 2. Calculate your effective rate for the last few months. 3. Read your agreement for notice periods and fee change terms. 4. Get an independent review of your statement if your effective rate has crept up. This article is general information about a reported court filing, not legal advice. We are not part of the case. Speak to a lawyer about any legal question.

What changes for multi-location and enterprise merchants

Larger merchants often have several merchant accounts, processors or legal entities, which makes record keeping harder. Make sure finance can pull card volume by entity and by year, keep copies of each processing agreement, and note which entity accepted the cards. Large merchants sometimes opt out of a class to pursue their own claims; that is a decision for your legal counsel, and only becomes relevant if a class is certified. In the meantime, the same basics apply: know your effective rate by location and channel, and question any fee you cannot explain.