LITTLE ROCK, AR, December 02, 2012 (Press-News.org) On November 9, a Federal judge gave preliminary approval to a credit card class-action settlement agreement between several million merchants, and credit card giants Visa and MasterCard. The lawsuit alleged the credit card companies and certain banks were fixing the rates of swipe fees - the fee a credit card company charges a merchant when a customer uses a card.
The settlement received preliminary approval from US District Judge John Gleeson earlier this month in Brooklyn, NY. This approval allows the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to begin registering the merchants who may be eligible for some of the $7.25 billion in compensation. The settlement may still require a final approval later on.
The settlement is composed of about $6 billion in damages, and another $1.25 billion in reduced swipe fees extending over several months.
Some merchants and critics are objecting to the settlement for the following reasons:
- It bars merchants from future swipe-fee-related lawsuits against Visa and MasterCard.
- The $1.2 billion in swipe fee discounts lasts for only eight months, after which time the fees may return to their former sum or may even increase.
- Customers can now be charged for using their credit card, a surcharge to offset the fees the merchant pays.
- Once the settlement is divided up, it amounts to only a couple months' worth of the swipe fees collected by Visa and MasterCard.
Some merchants are attempting to block the settlement. There may be an appeal if the settlement receives final approval. Attorneys across the nation are working to represent the merchants who are not satisfied with the settlement agreement.
Some merchants are particularly dissatisfied with the part of the settlement preventing certain lawsuits against Visa and MasterCard in the future.
"This settlement will affect an entire generation of merchants, whether they participate in a class-action suit or not," said attorney Phillip J. Duncan of the Duncan Firm. Decades down the road, new business owners may find themselves unable to sue these credit card giants over certain issues, including swipe fees.
Merchants who wish to join the effort to block the settlement agreement can join class-action lawsuits currently being organized.
"It is important for as many business owners and retailers as possible to join us in objecting to this unfair settlement that favors Visa and MasterCard above businesses," said Duncan.
To learn more about actions to block the Visa and MasterCard settlement, please contact the Duncan Firm, the law firm of Parker Waichman LLP, or Neblett, Beard & Arsenault, Attorneys at Law at http://duncanfirm.com.
Objecting to the Visa, MasterCard $7.25 Billion Settlement
On November 9, a Federal judge gave preliminary approval to a credit card class-action settlement agreement between several million merchants, and credit card giants Visa and MasterCard.
2012-12-02
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
TheDayGroup.net Responds to General Lack of Mobile Funding
2012-12-02
TheDayGroup.net, an internet and technology advisory firm in Greenwich, CT, releases its official commentary on the general lack of marketing funds available for the smart phone platform. As most companies begin to undergo a shift in marketing focus from traditional media and online media to smart phone platforms, many more companies are struggling.
"We' ve done our research," commented a spokesperson for TheDayGroup.net, "and we've found that the mobile marketing departments at many corporations are quite starved. You would think that these companies ...
Researchers identify a mechanism for the transformation of colon polyps
2012-12-01
The causes underlying the development of certain types of common cancers have not yet been elucidated. In order to better determine the origin and the sequence of events responsible for the onset of colon cancer, the teams led by Thanos Halazonetis and Stylianos Antonarakis, professors at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, have sequenced the DNA of biopsied tissue from colon polyps. The results show that these precancerous lesions have a specific profile called 'mutator', which is associated with an increased frequency of acquisition of certain mutations. The ...
Men and women explore the visual world differently
2012-12-01
Everyone knows that men and women tend to hold different views on certain things. However, new research by scientists from the University of Bristol and published in PLoS ONE indicates that this may literally be the case.
Researchers examined where men and women looked while viewing still images from films and pieces of art. They found that while women made fewer eye movements than men, those they did make were longer and to more varied locations.
These differences were largest when viewing images of people. With photos of heterosexual couples, both men and women ...
UI researcher predicts more intense North Atlantic tropical storms
2012-12-01
Tropical storms that make their way into the North Atlantic, and possibly strike the East Coast of the United States, likely will become more intense during the rest of this century.
That's the prediction of one University of Iowa researcher and his colleague as published in an early online release in the prestigious Journal of Climate, the official publication of the American Meteorological Society.
The study is a compilation of results from some of the best available computer models of climate, according to lead author Gabriele Villarini, assistant professor of civil ...
Native Americans and Northern Europeans more closely related than previously thought
2012-12-01
BETHESDA, MD – November 30, 2012 -- Using genetic analyses, scientists have discovered that Northern European populations—including British, Scandinavians, French, and some Eastern Europeans—descend from a mixture of two very different ancestral populations, and one of these populations is related to Native Americans. This discovery helps fill gaps in scientific understanding of both Native American and Northern European ancestry, while providing an explanation for some genetic similarities among what would otherwise seem to be very divergent groups. This research was published ...
Emerging vector-borne diseases create new public health challenges
2012-12-01
West Nile virus, Lyme disease, dengue fever, and plague are examples of "vector-borne zoonotic diseases," caused by pathogens that naturally infect wildlife and are transmitted to humans by vectors such as mosquitoes or ticks.
According to Marm Kilpatrick, who studies the ecology of infectious diseases at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a broad range of human activities can affect the spread of zoonotic diseases. In an article in the December 1 issue of the British medical journal Lancet, Kilpatrick and coauthor Sarah Randolph of the University of Oxford describe ...
Ancient microbes survive beneath the icy surface of Antarctic lake
2012-12-01
Researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) describe in a new publication a viable community of bacteria that ekes out a living in a dark, salty and subfreezing environment beneath nearly 20 meters of ice in one of Antarctica's most isolated lakes.
The finding could have implications for the discovery of life in other extreme environments, including elsewhere in the solar system.
If, as the researchers postulate, the bacteria survive purely from chemical reactions, as opposed to drawing energy from the sun or other sources, "this gives us an entirely ...
Vitamin D tied to women's cognitive performance
2012-12-01
Two new studies appearing in the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences show that vitamin D may be a vital component for the cognitive health of women as they age.
Higher vitamin D dietary intake is associated with a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to research conducted by a team led by Cedric Annweiler, MD, PhD, at the Angers University Hospital in France.
Similarly, investigators led by Yelena Slinin, MD, MS, at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis found that low vitamin D levels among older women are associated ...
Geoscientists cite 'critical need' for basic research to unleash promising energy resources
2012-12-01
Developers of renewable energy and shale gas must overcome fundamental geological and environmental challenges if these promising energy sources are to reach their full potential, according to a trio of leading geoscientists. Their findings will be presented on Dec. 4, at 5:15 p.m. (PT), at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco in Room 102 of Moscone Center West .
"There is a critical need for scientists to address basic questions that have hindered the development of emerging energy resources, including geothermal, wind, solar and ...
NASA sees 'hot towers' in intensifying Typhoon Bopha
2012-12-01
Bopha intensified into a typhoon today, Nov. 30, as it continues to affect the islands in Micronesia in the western North Pacific Ocean. NASA's TRMM satellite captured rainfall data of Bopha and noticed "Hot Tower" thunderstorms as it was intensifying from a tropical storm into a typhoon.
When NASA and the Japanese Space Agency's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Bopha twice on Nov. 29, and the later data showed that the area of heaviest rainfall had expanded and was still south of the center of circulation. The heaviest rainfall was occurring ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
The most effective diabetes drugs don't reach enough patients yet
Breast cancer risk in younger women may be influenced by hormone therapy
Strategies for staying smoke-free after rehab
Commentary questions the potential benefit of levothyroxine treatment of mild hypothyroidism during pregnancy
Study projects over 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 if USAID defunding continues
New study reveals 33% gap in transplant access for UK’s poorest children
Dysregulated epigenetic memory in early embryos offers new clues to the inheritance of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
IVF and IUI pregnancy rates remain stable across Europe, despite an increasing uptake of single embryo transfer
It takes a village: Chimpanzee babies do better when their moms have social connections
From lab to market: how renewable polymers could transform medicine
Striking increase in obesity observed among youth between 2011 and 2023
No evidence that medications trigger microscopic colitis in older adults
NYUAD researchers find link between brain growth and mental health disorders
Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations, new study finds
University of Oregon to create national children’s mental health center with $11 million federal grant
Rare achievement: UTA undergrad publishes research
Fact or fiction? The ADHD info dilemma
Genetic ancestry linked to risk of severe dengue
Genomes reveal the Norwegian lemming as one of the youngest mammal species
Early birds get the burn: Monash study finds early bedtimes associated with more physical activity
Groundbreaking analysis provides day-by-day insight into prehistoric plankton’s capacity for change
Southern Ocean saltier, hotter and losing ice fast as decades-long trend unexpectedly reverses
Human fishing reshaped Caribbean reef food webs, 7000-year old exposed fossilized reefs reveal
Killer whales, kind gestures: Orcas offer food to humans in the wild
Hurricane ecology research reveals critical vulnerabilities of coastal ecosystems
Montana State geologist’s Antarctic research focuses on accumulations of rare earth elements
Groundbreaking cancer therapy clinical trial with US Department of Energy’s accelerator-produced actinium-225 set to begin this summer
Tens of thousands of heart attacks and strokes could be avoided each year if cholesterol-lowering drugs were used according to guidelines
Leading cancer and metabolic disease expert Michael Karin joins Sanford Burnham Prebys
Low-intensity brain stimulation may restore neuron health in Alzheimer's disease
[Press-News.org] Objecting to the Visa, MasterCard $7.25 Billion SettlementOn November 9, a Federal judge gave preliminary approval to a credit card class-action settlement agreement between several million merchants, and credit card giants Visa and MasterCard.