Even before it has been finalized, merchants have filed an appeal to the proposed settlement to their longstanding fight with card brands and major credit card issuers over credit card interchange.
Credit unions were never direct participants in the litigation but are members of trade groups, such as the Electronic Payments Coalition, organized around the interchange issue.
The notice of appeal was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. As they have since a settlement was proposed, merchants filing the appeal charged the settlement does not address what they viewed as the problem with the interchange system.
"This settlement has fatal legal defects and should not get preliminary approval. We look forward to presenting the problems we see in this proposal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals," said Jeffrey Shinder, managing partner, Constantine Cannon LLC, counsel to the merchants objecting to the proposed settlement.
The named class plaintiffs opposing the proposed settlement of the case, which is known as "In Re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation," are Affiliated Foods Midwest, Coborn's Inc., D'Agostino Supermarkets, Jetro Holdings LLC, National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), NATSO, National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA), National Grocers Association (NGA), and National Restaurant Association (NRA).
"The merchant community is deeply committed to reforms that bring transparency and competition to the broken electronic payments market. The volume and diversity of those objecting to this flawed proposal is remarkable and continues to grow," said Shinder.
