Visa, MasterCard end swipe-fee case

Visa Inc, MasterCard Inc and some of the biggest US banks agreed to a settlement of at least $6.05 billion in a price-fixing case brought by retailers over credit-card swipe fees.

The total value of the settlement is $7.25 billion to a class of about 7 million merchants in the United States that accept Visa and MasterCard credit cards and debit cards, a law firm for the merchants, Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP, said in a statement.

Visa, the world's biggest payments network, said its share of the settlement filed on Friday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, was about $4.4 billion. Visa said the proposed settlement payments, including costs incurred by MasterCard Inc and card-issuing banks, would be about $6.6 billion. That amount would include about $525 million for individual claims.