NEW YORK—Lawyers for consumers who won a proposed $17.5-million settlement with American Express over its long-running “anti-steering” rules are now asking a federal judge in New York to approve nearly $13 million in attorney fees and litigation costs, according to a new court filing first reported by Law360.
The fee request comes after AmEx sought preliminary approval of the settlement in a case alleging the card giant’s merchant rules forced non-AmEx cardholders to pay higher retail prices by limiting merchants’ ability to steer customers toward lower-cost payment options.
Law360 reported that class counsel is seeking roughly one-third of the settlement fund in legal fees, plus about $7 million in litigation costs, a request that would consume a substantial share of the recovery if approved. The underlying lawsuit centers on claims that AmEx’s anti-steering restrictions inflated merchant acceptance costs and effectively spread those higher costs across all shoppers, including consumers who did not use American Express cards.
The filing marks the latest chapter in the long-running litigation over AmEx’s merchant rules, an issue that has drawn years of scrutiny from antitrust enforcers, merchants and consumer plaintiffs because of its broader implications for card-network competition and payment costs. For financial institutions and payments providers, the case remains notable because it underscores how merchant-routing restrictions and network rules can still generate sizable antitrust exposure even after years of regulatory and court battles over card steering.
A ruling on the fee petition will determine how much of the $17.5 million fund ultimately reaches consumers versus plaintiffs’ counsel, and could shape how closely future settlements tied to card network competition are scrutinized. The case is worth watching for banks, credit unions and payments executives alike, as it keeps attention on the economics of acceptance costs, merchant choice and whether legacy card-network rules can still create downstream pricing effects for consumers outside the network itself.