Court rejects gas stations' bid to pursue separate lawsuit against card brands

A U.S. appeals court refused a bid by a group of gas stations to pursue separate claims against Visa and Mastercard over interchange, holding they are bound by a $5.6 billion settlement reached in 2019.

In a related development, the Merchants Payments Coalition said the recent spike in gasoline and diesel prices is costing gas station owners as much as $60 million a day in transaction processing fees, or what the MPC calls "swipe fees." As of May 4, 2026, fees on the average $4.46 gallon of gasoline amounted to 10.5 cents, according to the MPC's Fuel Price/Swipe Fee Tracker. Fees assessed on the average $5.64 gallon on diesel fuel totaled 13.3 cents.

"Based on average daily fuel consumption and the average swipe fee rate of 2.36 percent, fees on gas and diesel combined would amount to $60.9 million a day and more than $1.8 billion a month if all fuel purchases were paid for with credit cards," the MPC said in a statement. "That total is up 24 percent from $49 billion a day when MPC launched the tracker in early March."

Fuel for Credit Card Competition Act

MPC used the data to push Congress for passage of the Credit Card Competition Act, a bipartisan bill that has the support of President Trump. Sponsors of the legislation claim it would help reduce processing fees by injecting more competition into the card processing environment.

Specifically, the bill would require the largest card issuers in the nation to program their cards so as to allow merchants a choice of two competing card processing networks only one of which could be controlled by Visa or Mastercard.

"High, price-fixed swipe fees are multiplying the other factors driving gas and diesel prices higher," said Doug Kantor, general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores and member of the MPC executive committee. "This makes life less affordable for Americans as these prices, particularly diesel prices, inflate the cost of most of the things people buy. This is exactly the kind of swipe fee ripoff Present Trump has said needs to end."

The litigious world of interchange

Visa and Mastercard have been entangled in anti-trust lawsuits for more than two decades. In 2019, the two card companies, entered into a $5.6 settlement with merchants that was said to be one of the largest anti-trust settlements in U.S. history.

Gas station owners argued they had indirectly paid inflated interchange fees through their fuel suppliers, franchisors or jobbers rather than contracting directly with acquirers, according to published reports. And they argued that provided them with legal recourse. A U.S. District Court judge rejected the argument. And now so has the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. That's the same court that upheld the original settlement.

The case remains contentious, however. On April 21, a group of small New York merchants filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York arguing that the 2019 settlement with Mastercard and Visa only applied to damages suffered through 2019, and that they and other merchants have continued to suffer under the weight of high interchange rates as well as onerous card brand rules and prohibitions.

Meanwhile, a judge in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York is considering a settlement agreement in yet another long-standing class action lawsuit under which Visa and Mastercard have agreed to ditch their honor-all-cards rule, temporarily cap interchange and allow for surcharging. Approval of the proposed settlement is not a given, however, as several large retailers, including Walmart, as well as the MPC and other retailer trade groups are opposed.

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