The Discover Card Merchant Class Action Settlement is a new $1.2B class action recovery opportunity for merchants who accepted or processed Discover credit cards between January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2023. The settlement is now awaiting court approval and should be open to class member’s claims in the coming weeks.

Here are the case details.

Discover Card Merchant Class Action Settlement addresses the issue that Discover Financial Services, DFS Services LLC, and Discover Bank (together, "Discover") misclassified consumer credit card transactions as commercial cards, leading merchants and others to incur higher interchange fees from 2007 to 2023.

According to the plaintiffs’ class action complaint, “Credit card accounts classified as ‘commercial’ draw the highest fee rate (i.e., 2.4% on the purchase amount) in the industry while basic consumer accounts draw the lowest fee rate (i.e., 1.4% on the purchase amount)". This misclassification, plaintiffs claim, led to “interchange fees of upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars” beyond what they should have been charged.

Who’s eligible for the Discover Card Merchant Class Action Settlement?

All End Merchants, Merchant Acquirers, and Payment Intermediaries involved in processing or accepting a misclassified card transaction during the period of January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2023.

But what is a “misclassified card transaction”?

That means a Discover credit card transaction, at the time of processing and according to the records of Discover, the credit card account was classified by Discover Bank as a “commercial” card product but should have been classified under Discover Bank’s card classification guidelines as “rewards”, “premium”, or “premium plus".

What is the total fund? 

$1,225,311,279

However, there is a "minimum class payout" of $540 million. (The discrepancy between total and minimum is because some class members may resolve their claims with Discover on a separate, individual basis.)

Claim notices will start going out to eligible class members after the settlements are preliminarily approved by the court. 

When is the claim filing deadline?

TBD

Want to learn more? Give us a call at (312) 204-6969 or email us.

About Certificate Clearing Corporation (CCC)

Founded in 1993, CCC is the leader in the class action settlement recovery industry. We help millions of claimants recover funds in thousands of class actions. Our expert staff can help you understand the history of this litigation, its complexities, and your options for accelerated recovery options. We know there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and our team is ready to customize a recovery that best suits your business.