A swipe-fee settlement now before a federal judge would let stores charge extra when a customer pays with a Visa or Mastercard credit card. It would also let them refuse some of those cards outright. Nothing has taken effect yet, because the court has given only preliminary approval. A fairness hearing is set for Nov. 16, 2026, at 11 a.m., according to the settlement website.

What stores could do

The settlement covers the rules Visa and Mastercard put on the merchants that accept their cards. If the court signs off, the site says, a merchant could add a surcharge to Visa or Mastercard credit card purchases, and could set that surcharge by type of card, such as rewards cards versus non-rewards cards. A store could also decline commercial credit cards and premium consumer credit cards from either network.

The list goes further. Merchants could offer discounts to customers who pay another way, or to customers whose cards come from certain banks. A chain could refuse the cards at stores under one banner while taking them under another. Stores could also take some digital wallets and not others, and steer shoppers toward particular cards inside a wallet.

Where approval stands

The court granted preliminary approval on June 9, 2026. The settlement site says plainly that the court has not given final approval. The class covers the period from Dec. 18, 2020, through June 9, 2026. The deadline to object was Sept. 14, 2026, so that window has closed.

Class members cannot opt out of this settlement, the site says, and they do not need to file anything to benefit from the rule changes. A separate cash settlement approved in 2019 covers money damages and has its own website.

Payments Dive reported in January that U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan was the judge deciding whether to grant preliminary approval, and that the lawsuit dates to 2005. Visa and Mastercard reached this deal with the merchant plaintiffs in November 2025.

For shoppers, the practical question is simple. Anyone who pays with a credit card could one day see a line at checkout that was not there before, or a sign saying a certain card is not taken. Whether that happens depends on the judge’s ruling and then on what each store decides to do.

The Nov. 16 fairness hearing is the date that decides whether stores get these new card rules, and every shopper who pays with a credit card is caught by it.

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The rate freeze

Stores are the ones who pay interchange, the fee charged on each card payment. The settlement site says Visa and Mastercard would reduce the credit card interchange rates that U.S. merchants pay. It also says neither network may raise a published credit card rate above its level on March 31, 2025.

The site does not promise that stores pass any savings along. A store that pays less in fees could keep prices where they are, cut them, or add a surcharge on top. That decision would belong to each business.

Who backs the deal and who does not

Merchant lawyers have called the surcharge option a win. In a January filing, class counsel said merchants are growing more comfortable with surcharges and that customer anger is “no longer the concern that it once may have been,” Payments Dive reported. Economists Joseph Stiglitz and Keith Leffler argued that extra charges on premium cards pay for extra services, much like paying more for a prime steak than a choice one.

Other merchants object. Doug Kantor, general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores, said the approach is “wrong from the start” and that the current system “makes merchants the toll collectors for anticompetitive conduct by the credit card industry.” A Visa spokesperson pointed to the company’s earlier statement that the settlement would give merchants “more flexibility and options to control how they accept payments from their customers.” Mastercard did not respond to Payments Dive’s request for comment.

Surcharges already exist

Surcharging is not new. A 2024 J.D. Power survey of 3,841 small businesses found that 34 percent charge a surcharge on credit cards, Payments Dive reported. The settlement also sets up a $21 million merchant education program. It is meant to help merchants in states that restrict surcharging and to explain ways to treat cards differently based on the bank that issued them. The article did not name those states, and the settlement site does not either.

That means the answer at the register could differ by state, and by store, if the court approves the deal.

What to watch before Nov. 16

Until the judge rules, store rules stay as they are. The ruling on final approval is the date that matters. After that, any change would come store by store, so the first sign would be a posted notice at the register or a line on a receipt.

Shoppers who use a premium rewards card are the ones with the most to watch, since premium cards are the ones stores would be allowed to refuse. Keeping a second card in the wallet that is not a premium card costs nothing and covers the case where one is turned away.

The settlement website keeps the full agreement, the key dates and a toll-free line for the class administrator, 1-877-318-7713. The site says the agreement controls if the website and the agreement ever differ.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.