IN RE CURRENCY CONVERSION FEE ANTITRUST LITIGATION, 265 F. Supp. 2d 385

Summary

The cardholders alleged a conspiracy to fix the currency conversion fees charged when they conducted a foreign currency transaction on their credit cards. The alleged fixed price fees appeared on the cardholders' monthly billing statements, their account terms were governed by cardholder agreements, which contained arbitration clauses. Thus, reading the agreements liberally due to their broad language, the court held that the antitrust claims were related to the cardholder agreements, as were any TILA claims. The cardholders had not sufficiently demonstrated an inability to pay the fees associated with the arbitrations called for under their cardholder agreements, nor the likelihood that they would incur large arbitration costs that would effectively preclude them from vindicating their federal statutory rights in arbitration. Thus, the agreements were not unconscionable. The cardholders had alleged sufficient facts to permit an inference of an antitrust conspiracy to set currency ...