MasterCard to pay Amex up to $1.8 bln

NEW YORK (AFP) — MasterCard agreed to pay American Express up to 1.8 billion dollars to settle an antitrust lawsuit, the companies said Wednesday.

American Express said it had reached an agreement with MasterCard to drop the lawsuit alleging it had illegally blocked Amex from the bank-issued credit card business in the US market.

Under the terms of the agreement, MasterCard will pay American Express up to 1.8 billion dollars in 12 quarterly instalments, beginning with the third quarter of 2008.

Amex pointed out that the settlement with MasterCard followed an earlier agreement with Visa to settle similar claims for up to 2.25 billion dollars.

Calling the combined antitrust settlement "the largest in US history," American Express said it would receive more than four billion dollars for agreeing to drop its claims against the two credit card networks.

The case, filed in US federal court in ...