Walmart is suing Visa for $5 billion over credit card swipe fees they believe the credit card processor illegally inflated. The complaint was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.
You may remember a similar suit late last year, where a large group of retailers fought to get a $5.7 billion settlement from Visa and MasterCard for swipe fee inflation. Walmart, along with Target and Amazon, opted out of this lawsuit, and the company is now filing a separate claim against Visa. The world's largest retailer felt the original settlement would not do anything to reduce interchange fees in the future.
Walmart is alleging that Visa worked with banks to illegally raise the fees retailers pay for credit card transactions. They believe that swipe fees alone cost more than $350 billion between 2004 and 2012.
At present, the average retailer spends around 2% per transaction when a cutomer pays with a credit card. Large companies like Walmart are often able to secure discounted rates or swipe fees because of the volume of business they do each month.