Supreme Court Will Hear Appeal on ATM-Fees Case -- WSJ
June 29 2016 - 3:03AM
Dow Jones News
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider an
appeal by Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and several leading banks that
are challenging lawsuits alleging they conspired to set
anticompetitive ATM fees.
The case was one of eight new matters the court added to the
docket for its next term, a move that will help give the court's
coming calendar more heft. The court has been operating with eight
members since the February death of Justice Antonin Scalia, leading
to a dynamic where it has been slow to take new cases and has shied
away from potential blockbusters.
The ATM case involves a challenge to rules on access fees that
prevent independent ATM operators from charging lower amounts for
banking transactions processed on networks other than Visa and
MasterCard.
The plaintiffs -- consumers and operators of independent ATMs,
such as those found in bars and convenience stories -- allege banks
including Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and
Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to the ATM fee rules when Visa and
MasterCard were owned as joint ventures by the banks. The bank card
associations went public in 2008 and 2006, but the plaintiffs say
the substance of the agreed-upon ATM rules remains in place.
A Washington, D.C., appeals court revived the lawsuits last year
after a trial judge previously ruled the allegations weren't strong
enough to proceed.
MasterCard and Visa said they were pleased that the court agreed
to hear the case.
Banks typically offer free ATM withdrawals for their customers,
but people who use a machine that isn't associated with their bank
may be charged fees by their own institution as well as the company
that owns the ATM. The average cost for using an automated teller
machine that isn't tied to a customer's bank rose to a record $4.52
per transaction last year, according to data provider Bankrate
Inc.
The court issued its last rulings of the 2015-16 term on Monday,
and all the cases accepted Tuesday for review will be heard in the
term beginning in October. Among the court's actions on
Tuesday:
-- The reach of Monday's ruling against Texas rules for abortion
clinics was immediately extended, when the court turned away
efforts by Mississippi and Wisconsin to reinstate state laws
requiring abortion doctors to hold admitting privileges at local
hospitals.
-- The justices accepted a case on whether Miami can bring
fair-housing lawsuits against Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The
city alleged the banks engaged in financial crisis-era
discriminatory lending that forced minority-owned properties into
premature or unnecessary foreclosure.
-- The court will consider the constitutionality of U.S. rules
that determine when to grant citizenship to out-of-wedlock children
born abroad when one of the parents is a U.S. citizen. Congress has
crafted different rules for citizenship in such circumstances,
depending on whether the mother or the father is a citizen.
-- It also said it would consider a case in which oil-drilling
company Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Co. alleges
Venezuela, under the regime of Hugo Chávez, illegally seized its
property and now uses it for the country's state-owned
business.
Robin Sidel contributed to this article
Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 29, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)
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