Analysis
The money being paid out settles claims that card fees were too high between 2004 and 2019, while the November hearing concerns what happens to fees and acceptance rules going forward. The two settlements are separate, and the payouts so far are a fraction of the fund, which still held about $5.02 billion at the end of September. Whether the future-rules deal is approved remains for the judge to decide.
The payouts so far
Merchants have received about $631.7 million to date from the damages settlement with Visa and Mastercard, according to a court filing by the class administrator reported by Payments Dive on October 12, 2026. The report says 689,340 merchants have been paid, including $212.8 million from a second partial distribution that began in September. The settlement fund held $5.02 billion as of September 30. [1]
About 1.47 million merchants filed claims by the February 2025 deadline, and about 2.12 million merchant tax identification numbers were registered as potentially owed money, the report says. A magistrate judge approved $21.4 million for the administrator's work from April through August, and the next quarterly claims report is due in January. [1]
The settlement website, which the court authorized, says the second partial distribution was approved by the court on June 15, 2026, and that payments are being issued on a rolling basis for approved claims. It lists the settlement at $5.5 billion and the covered period as January 1, 2004 to January 25, 2019. [2]
How the case got here
The damages settlement partly resolved an antitrust case in which merchants said Visa and Mastercard charged excessive , the fees merchants pay when customers use a credit or debit card. It was reached in 2018 and received final court approval in December 2019, followed by appeals that a federal appeals court decided in March 2023. [1][2]
The court-authorized site lists the first partial distribution as approved in October 2025 and the claim-filing deadline as February 4, 2025. Judge Brian Cogan of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn oversees the settlement. [1][2]
The separate November hearing
A second, separate settlement covers future conduct rather than past damages. In June 2026, Judge Cogan granted preliminary approval to a revised settlement that Reuters described as worth $38 billion to merchants. It would lower credit rates by 0.1 percentage point for five years, cap standard consumer card rates at 1.25% for eight years, and let merchants choose whether to accept categories such as premium and commercial cards. [3]
Payments Dive reported in September that Judge Cogan would hear arguments on final approval on November 16, 2026, and that Walmart had asked the court to reject the deal, calling its relief "temporary and meager." The October 12 article repeats that the hearing is next month and says several large merchants oppose the deal. [1][4]
What remains uncertain
The $631.7 million total, the 689,340 merchant count and the $5.02 billion fund balance come from Payments Dive's description of a court filing by the settlement's claims administrator; this site did not open the filing itself, and the settlement website does not yet show these totals. The filing date is inferred from the report's reference to a Friday filing. Final approval of the separate forward-looking settlement is undecided, and objections from Walmart and other merchants may change the outcome.
Sources
- Payments Dive · Visa-Mastercard payouts top $631M · October 12, 2026 ↗Source
- Payment Card Settlement · Official court-authorized website (updated October 12, 2026) ↗Source
- Reuters · Visa, Mastercard $38 billion swipe fee settlement wins US judge's approval · June 9, 2026 ↗Source
- Payments Dive · Walmart slams card-fee pact again · September 15, 2026 ↗Source