Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and several banks learned the hard way in 2012 how damaging a consumer class action can be. That was the year the finance companies inked an antitrust settlement totaling $7.25 billion with U.S. retailers and individuals over allegations the credit-card issuers fixed debit- and credit-card fees, creating an anticompetitive environment.
Although a class action settlement of such a massive size is rare, in general consumer class action settlements are commonplace. A new report from NERA Economic Consulting, a global consulting firm that deals with business and legal challenges, shows that consumer class action settlements are on the rise. The report also found that an emerging type of consumer case—the privacy violation class action—has been gathering steam.
