US retailers will be able to charge their customers more for paying with credit cards under the terms of a multibillion-dollar court settlement announced last Friday.

MasterCard, Visa and major US banks, including JP Morgan Chase, agreed to pay more than $6 billion (€4.9 billion) to settle accusations that they engaged in anti-competitive practices in payment processing.

The settlement is the culmination of a lawsuit brought in a US federal court on behalf of roughly seven million merchants in 2005. – (New York Times)