JPMorgan Chase Settles Crypto Credit Card Lawsuit for $2.5M

Banking giant JPMorgan Chase settled a 2018 lawsuit recently, with a $2.5 total payout — the result of unclear fees charged when using credit cards for crypto purchases. 

A May 26 court document detailed:

"The Court notes that Defendant JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., f/k/a Chase Bank USA, N.A. (“Chase” or “Defendant”) has agreed to provide a Cash Settlement Amount of an aggregate of $2,500,000 in cash."

The lawsuit stemmed from lack of clarity 

In January 2018, JPMorgan Chase quietly altered the terms of use around its credit cards when dealing in crypto asset purchases, failing to alert customers until 10 days after the changes took effect. The terms allegedly charged users the same fees as cash advance activities. 

The legal action took flight later in 2018, seeing Brady Tucker, Ryan Hilton, and Stanton Smith press charges against the banking entity.

Reuters said in a May 27, 2020 brief:

"In a motion filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, plaintiffs said the settlement would result in class members getting about 95% of the fees they said they were unlawfully charged."  

March news settled in May

The plaintiffs' legal action requested compensation for the deceptively-charged fees, as well as $1 million for damages, with a 75-day window for settlement detail submission, as of Cointelegraph's March 2020 article.  

The movement was unopposed, according the May 26 court document.

"JPMorgan is not admitting wrongdoing as part of the deal, according to the motion," Reuters noted in the brief. 

A number of other lawsuit-related headlines filled the crypto space in the first half of 2020, involving Ripple, Bitfinex, Tezos and others.