Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
• In a huge legal development for the payment card industry, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned a lower court’s 2013 approval of a $7.25 billion settlement of a merchant class-action lawsuit accusing Visa, MasterCard, and some banks of antitrust violations in setting credit card interchange. The appellate court said the class plaintiffs were inadequately represented. In a concurring opinion, a judge said, “This is not a settlement; it is a confiscation,” because the deal barred merchants that accepted its terms from ever again suing the networks over the disputed issues. Retail groups immediately praised the appellate court’s action. Digital Transactions News will have more soon.
• Processor Global Payments Inc. said it is relocating its suburban Atlanta headquarters to a new office tower in Atlanta, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. Global Payments also will invest approximately $220 million a data-center expansion.
• Merchant services providers SignaPay Ltd. and Priority Payments Systems LLC extended by three years their cooperative agreement.
• Payments provider Clearent LLC released its Hosted Payment buttons and forms service for e-commerce merchants.
• MasterCard Inc. said it will work with Microsoft Corp. to make its Simplify Commerce platform available to users of Microsoft Dynamics, a set of business solutions for retail and corporate entities.
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. launched its Walmart Pay mobile-payment service in 13 more states: Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
• The NFC Forum, a near-field communication technology advocacy group, published a white paper on NFC and smart homes.
