Recently, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) took Visa and MasterCard to court.
Looks like their legal team had Phoenix Right: Ass Attorney onboard because they were able to make a significant settlement from the credit card giants.
Today, let’s review what happened and how you can claim if applicable.
Case
The lawsuit, filed by the CFIB, specifically questions the validity of Visa and MasterCard, which bar merchants from charging customers extra fees for credit cards, especially premium credit cards that carry higher transaction fees.
These transaction fees, commonly known as “interchange fees” or “swipe fees” in conversations, have hitherto been mandatory for merchants.
In addition, merchants cannot reject premium credit cards, such as high-fee Visa Infinite Privilege or MasterCard World Elite product lines, lest they draw the wrath of major payment networks.
It has now been ruled that the court system was damaged. Therefore, those businesses that spend the exchange fee Willpower Must now be entitled to compensation.
In addition, on October 6, 2022, many of the policies previously implemented by Visa and MasterCard will be discontinued and policies such as charging customers for credit card use will be approved.
Although I personally have an opinion on this, it is important to remember that the law says and we as Canadian consumers will now be bound for a detailed change in the settlement. This means that anyone reading this who has run a business in the past that has received a credit card may be eligible for some final compensation in a CFIB case.
How to make a claim
Before claiming for any amount of money determined by the settlement, consider your eligibility. Let’s have all your paperwork files by you September 30, 2022. The rest of the information is provided directly by CFIB:
To determine what type of business you are running, consider that you must be working between March 23, 2001 and September 2, 2021 to qualify for compensation. If you run your business completely outside of this timeline, you are out of luck.
Next, consider the amount of income your business earns in determining which class you will fall into and how much you might be entitled to.
If you run a business that earns over $ 5 million a year, my sincere congratulations and my sympathies. Your application is going to be rather complicated, requiring lots of documentation and supporting evidence.
On the other hand, if you become a small trader at any time within the considered date range, Your claim may be completely undocumented. Just apply at the link below, and your eligibility will be assessed by the internal review team of the case.
Keep in mind that as an unregistered claimant, your application may be rejected and there is no asylum or appeal process if this happens. Therefore, honesty is the best policy when entering your information. Don’t expect an auditor to believe you’re accepting Visa and MasterCard at your Middle School Lemonade stand!
Then just make your claim and wait for the review process to approve you. When this is finally expected, just transfer your direct deposit information or request a check (this next option requires a $ 2 fee, which will be deducted from your final settlement payment) and wait for the money to arrive. Just remember, you can only claim the maximum 600, Or 20 years of operation as a small business.
Whatever your personal circumstances, if you run a business in any of the years in question and accept Visa / MasterCard, you must apply and recover the cost before the opportunity is gone forever.
Each card has two sides
As I mentioned earlier, I have a personal opinion on this matter, but I recommend that you continue to be polite to members of the Canadian business community. After all, no Miles and Points enthusiast would be able to enjoy the benefits of a credit card if we did not have lively trade in this country.
That being said, some of the goal objectives of CFIB, although they undoubtedly benefit traders, can be potentially detrimental to customers. Let’s take a look:
Let’s break it down, because it can have a significant impact on customers, especially those with miles and points in space.
Reducing interchange fees, for example, could lead to a similar situation for British and Australian credit card reward enthusiasts: much lower rates of return and earnings on daily expenses. The same applies to GST / HST fee waivers, as that portion of the transaction will be disqualified for earning points – perhaps even for the minimum expense of a credit card welcome bonus.
When it comes to chargebacks, I agree that businesses should not be deceived by unscrupulous individuals. But even paying customers shouldn’t have their legitimate chargebacks – often the last line of defense in a commercial dispute – being rejected out of hand.
Think about how bad it would be if customers could recover the money they spent on cash flights instead of travel bank credits, in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic. Strict refusal of chargeback can seriously hurt the customers who need that money in a crisis situation!
To waive fees on prepaid cards, I think it would be unfairly hampered by highly lucrative and customer-friendly prepaid plans, such as Wise Card, which has done a commendable job of offering customers more payments and lower exchange rates.
In any case, after October 6, 2022, the location of the credit card must be different, when the surcharge on credit card usage will be allowed. Here it is expected that traders will not realize the overall loss of sales even if they recover some exchange fees. Fortunately, surcharges will not be mandatory, so let’s hope they don’t become universal.
Conclusion
CFIB’s lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard has a huge impact on the entire Canadian credit card space.
If you have been running a business in the past, there is no point in doing deli. Visit CFIB’s site now and apply for your compensation while you still can.
For the rest of us consumers, it remains to be seen whether these changes will benefit the market as a whole or only for certain merchants. Charging more from customers does not seem to be the best business practice because they want the protection of a credit card, but time will tell.
