U.S. banking giant JPMorgan Chase Bank has agreed to a settlement in the amount of $2.5 million to end an ongoing class action lawsuit over digital currency fees.
The case was raised by bank customers after it emerged the bank had decided to charge digital currency transactions as if they were cash advances, attracting higher fees than other types of transactions.
Such transactions were historically charged as purchases until 2018, when the bank unexpectedly switched to treating digital transactions as advances. The case was raised by Brady Tucker, who was joined shortly thereafter by Ryan Hilton, Stanton Smith, and other Chase customers.
While the settlement sees no acknowledgement of wrongdoing, the plaintiffs have welcomed the flexibility of the bank in reaching a conclusion to the matter.
In a statement on behalf of the plaintiffs, Tucker said the settlement was a good outcome to the case.
This settlement represents an outstanding result for settlement class members. Plaintiffs estimate that the $2.5 million settlement fund constitutes more than 95% of the [damages allegedly sustained by] settlement class members. Such a high-percentage recovery stands far above the typical recovery for class actions such as this one.
The settlement brings the legal action to a close, and brings an end to the matter for the thousands of bank customers previously affected by higher card fees for their digital currency transactions.
In February 2018, JPMorgan Chase was among several major banks to announce it was no longer allowing its credit cards to be used to purchase digital currency. During the case, the bank claimed this was not a breach of consumer protection laws.
More recently, the bank has appeared to soften its stance towards digital currency, with JPMorgan even extending banking services to digital currency firms including Coinbase and Gemini.
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