Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount

Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount is among the longest-running antitrust MDLs on the JPML's docket, centralized in the Eastern District of New York in 2005 and still carrying 66 pending actions two decades later. That combination — a mature docket with a durable, ongoing population of individual actions — reflects a matter that developed an extensive settlement history around its core conspiracy theory while continuing to generate new and opted-out merchant claims tied to card-network interchange pricing. For a funder, that longevity is informative: this is not a docket where pricing depends on predicting a novel liability theory, but one where merchant claims can be evaluated against an established factual and legal framework built over nearly two decades of litigation.

Funding availability for individual merchant claims in this docket is comparatively favorable relative to earlier-stage antitrust matters, because the underlying conduct theory, class definitions, and much of the damages methodology have already been extensively tested. A law firm holding a book of merchant clients — retailers, restaurant groups, or franchise networks with card-acceptance histories spanning the relevant period — has a genuine inventory finance opportunity: claim value correlates reasonably predictably with transaction volume and acceptance dates, which supports the kind of portfolio underwriting Criterica Capital's commercial litigation finance product is built for.

Duration risk here is concentrated less in liability uncertainty and more in individual claim administration — verifying transaction data, coordinating with any remaining settlement-fund mechanics, and sequencing payouts across a large plaintiff population. A firm advancing costs against a portfolio of merchant claims in this docket should structure around that administrative timeline rather than litigation risk in the traditional sense. A structure and litigation brief covering the current claim population and procedural posture in more depth is also available.

Pre-settlement funding is a non-recourse purchase of a portion of the proceeds of a pending legal claim — not a loan. If the case does not result in a recovery, nothing is owed. Rates, fees, and repayment terms are disclosed in full in the funding agreement, which the applicant’s attorney reviews before signing. Availability and terms vary by state.