CLEVELAND — Getting a letter in the mail telling you to file a claim to get your share of a class action lawsuit settlement could be welcome news, depending on the circumstances, but you might also be wary of filling out any online forms.
One 3News viewer received a notice in the mail claiming that, as a business owner, she was entitled to money from a settlement related to credit card company fees, and she asked us to check it out.
The settlement claims to be for between $5.5 billion and $6.2 billion dollars.
THE QUESTION
So let's VERIFY: Is PaymentCardSettlement.com a legitimate website for a class action lawsuit?
SOURCES
Our sources are:
- PaymentCardSettlement.com
- Court records from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- Robins Kaplan LLP law firm
EXPLANATION
First things first, I went to PaymentCardSettlement.com and looked at documents they have linked on the page. That's where I got the case number they claimed this settlement was about. I also looked at attorneys listed on the documents posted on the website.
Then, I checked the court records for the Eastern District of New York, and sure enough, that case comes up. Court documents linked to the case show the same attorney names that we saw on PaymentCardSettlement.com.
To be as thorough as possible, I looked up the law firm listed, Robins Kaplan LLP, on my own. I noticed they reference this class action settlement on the front page of their website.
From there, I emailed several of the attorneys whose names showed up in both places. The law firm's partner, Ryan Marth, got back to me first and told me, "The PaymentCardSettlement.com website is in fact legitimate and is the only official court-approved website for the settlement."
ANSWER
So we can VERIFY that PaymentCardSettlement.com is a legitimate website for a class action lawsuit.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
If you ran a business or nonprofit between Jan. 1, 2004 and Jan. 24, 2019, and you paid Visa and Mastercard credit or debit card fees, you may be eligible for a payment from this settlement. The deadline to file a claim is Feb. 4, 2025.
According to Marth, "This is the largest class-action settlement in U.S. history."
If you want to learn more about joining this settlement, you can sign up for a free webinar being held in the afternoon on Nov. 21. I'm told the link to sign up will be live soon at the top of PaymentCardSettlement.com.