The NAC or National ATM Council Inc has gone to the Fed District Court of the DC on October 12th to file a class action lawsuit against Visa and Mastercard.  The details of the suit claim that MC and Visa's network rules are keeping ATM owners from providing lower prices on transactions for PIN-debit based networks that are not affiliated with either credit card company.  It also claims that the rules limit the ATM operators' earnings and this action is a violate of the Sherman Act's prohibition of restraint of trade.

Not only is the NAC part of the suit, they are joined by over a dozen independently owned ATM operators.  The lawsuit is challenging the agreement Visa and MC hold over almost every payment card-issuing bank in the USA.  The lawsuit is titled "The National ATM Council Inc. et al., v. Visa Inc., et al. (No. 1:11-cv-01803).  The plaintiffs are claiming that the agreement they're challenging allows Visa and MC to fix prices for ATM services and suppress competition amount these ATM networks.  It also prevents operators from setting lower prices on their ATMs for the services they provide.  The plaintiffs are hoping for relief from this agreement and it's also asking for a decree to eliminate the ATM restraints and award the class triple damages.

A spokesperson for both Visa and MasterCard have declined to comment on this suit.