Merchant Advisory on Final Settlement 07/06/05
Merchant Advisory on Final Approval and Payout of Settlement
of Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation
New York City, July 6, 2005 —The law firm of Constantine Cannon today released the following Advisory to merchants involved in the Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation:
Dear Merchant,
This law firm, Constantine Cannon, is lead counsel for United States merchants in the case called Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation, CV 96-5238.
The settlement in the Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation became final with all appeals to the United States Supreme Court having been denied or expired on May 31, 2005.
The settlement provides $3.383 billion in compensatory relief and an injunction valued by the court in the range of $25-$87 billion to U.S. merchants and consumers over the next decade.
In approving the Settlement, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit stated that it is “the largest antitrust settlement in history,” that it “produced significant and lasting benefits for America’s merchants and consum ers,” and that “the compensatory relief by itself constitutes the largest settlement ever approved by a federal court.”
Lloyd Constantine, Chairman of Constantine Cannon, stated that “after the lengthy appeals process, payment of the billions of dollars of monetary relief to merchants can now begin.”
Claim forms will be sent to the millions of merchants who are members of the Class in a few months.
Constantine also noted that the claims process has been simplified to make it as easy as possible for merc hants small and large. There will be free help available so that no merchant will need to hire any outside vendor to assist in filling out the claim form or collecting the settlement money to which that merchant is entitled.
Additional Merchant Advisories concerning the process for making and paying monetary claims will be issued prior to the actual mailing of the claim forms to merchants.
Copies of this Advisory and the entire Plan of Allocation can be obtained at the following websites:
www.InReVisacheck-MastermoneyAntitrustLitigation.com (case website)
www.constantinecannon.com (Constantine Cannon website)
www.nrf.com (National Retail Federation website)
www.fmi.org (Food Marketing Institute website)
www.retail-leaders.org (Retail Industry Leaders Association website)
Sincerely,
CONSTANTINE CANNON
Lead counsel for the class Counsel@www.InReVisacheckMastermoneyAntitrustLitigation.com
212-350-2799