Visa, MasterCard Judge Orders Changes on Swipe-Fee Sites

Websites critical of a settlement that Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. reached with retailers over so-called swipe fees are misleading and must be corrected, a federal judge ruled.

The sites contain “bad information” that may have caused some retailers to drop out of the settlement, U.S. District Judge John Gleeson said today in Brooklyn, New York. He gave the parties a week to decide on changes.

“I’m not going to belabor this with you,” Gleeson told Jeffrey Shinder, a lawyer representing retail trade associations that created the sites and have opposed the settlement. “I’m just talking about basic fairness.”