Asheville, N.C. – The federal courts should consolidate 14 lawsuits from merchants seeking to force some of the nation’s leading credit-card issuers to lower their fees, defense attorneys argued Thursday in a hearing before a seven-judge panel.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs, which include the country’s largest merchants associations, wanted some of the cases to be argued separately. They also argued that the case should be moved to New York; defense lawyers want it in Atlanta.
The seven-judge panel chaired by U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges of Florida did not issue a decision at the end of the hearing and did not indicate when a ruling might come.
“We will take the matter under submission,” Hodges told the attorneys, repeating the same phrase he uttered at the end of 11 unrelated cases that went before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
The credit-card lawsuits pit some of the nation’s largest merchant associations and retailers, including Walgreen Co. and Safeway Inc., against credit-card issuers such as Visa USA, Master Card Inc. and a number of major banks.
Last week, four merchant associations filed a new class-action suit in New York, accusing the defendants of engaging in collusive practices in setting interchange fees.
