By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal choose stated Visa (NYSE:) and Mastercard (NYSE:) can seemingly face up to a “substantially greater” settlement with retailers who stated they overpaid on swipe charges than the $30 billion accord she rejected this week.

U.S. District Decide Margo Brodie in Brooklyn made her evaluation in an 88-page opinion launched on Friday, three days after asserting her rejection of the preliminary settlement.

The accord masking greater than 12 million retailers would have lowered and capped swipe charges, also referred to as interchange charges, they pay to deal with Visa and Mastercard transactions.

However the choose known as the estimated $6 billion of annual financial savings for retailers “paltry” in contrast with the estimated $100 billion in charges they paid to simply accept Visa and Mastercard in 2023.

“Without evidence of Visa’s and Mastercard’s profitability, the court cannot say with certainty that defendants can withstand a greater judgment; however, the evidence strongly suggests that they could withstand a substantially greater judgment,” Brodie wrote.

The antitrust litigation started in 2005, and will go to trial absent a brand new settlement.

Visa stated it was dissatisfied, and nonetheless believes that “direct decision with retailers is one of the best ways ahead.”

Mastercard also expressed disappointment, saying the settlement would have encouraged competition and given millions of businesses “substantial certainty and large worth in how they handle their card acceptance actions.”

The accord would have lowered the typical 1.5% to 3.5% swipe fee by 0.04 percentage points for three years, capped fees for five years, and given merchants more room to impose surcharges.

Brodie said the proposed changes fell short of “absolute best” recovery.

She said it kept fees significantly above where they would be absent the alleged antitrust violations, and still “saddled” merchants with the “Honor All Playing cards” rule requiring that they settle for all Visa and Mastercard playing cards, or none.

Many retailers objected to the settlement, as did a number of commerce teams together with the Nationwide Retail Federation.

The case is In re Fee Card Interchange Charge and Service provider Low cost Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court docket, Jap District of New York, No 05-md-01720.