Google is suing Visa and MasterCard over the card giants' interchange fees, alleging that they violated federal antitrust law.
In a move first picked up by Law360, Google filed the suit in Texas federal court just before Christmas, claiming Visa and MasterCard charged "supracompetitive" interchange fees between 1 January 2004 and 28 November 2012. The search firm's suit asks for "actual damages" but stops short of providing a figure.
In July 2012 US retailers reached a $7.25 billion class action settlement with Visa and MasterCard over credit card interchange fees, seemingly ending a seven-year legal dispute.
However, Google opted out of that deal, just one of many players to turn its back on the agreement and file suit. Last March Wal-Mart went to court, claiming that it suffered "enormous" losses because of interchange, asking for damages of $5 billion.