⚠️ Heads up: this article is from our "experimental era" — a beautiful mess of enthusiasm ✨, caffeine ☕, and user-submitted chaos 🤹. We kept it because it’s part of our journey 🛤️ (and hey, everyone has awkward teenage years 😅).
Visa, Mastercard, and the largest U.S. credit-card issuing banks have reached a settlement with merchants who have been suing them for almost two decades. As part of the agreement, the networks and banks will reduce the fees that merchants pay to accept credit-card payments, commonly known as swipe or interchange fees, and these lowered fees will be capped for five years. The settlement is pending approval from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and aims to avoid the prolonged legal processes seen in previous deals. Shares of Visa and Mastercard saw a slight decline in early trading.