DOJ Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Visa Alleging for Monopolizing Debit Payments
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has against Visa for alleged monopolization of debit network markets. The complaint, filed earlier this week, alleges that Visa illegally maintains a monopoly over debit network markets by preventing competition and blocking new technology companies from entering the market, in a direct violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.
In recent years, the debit card payments system has enjoyed some competition benefiting truck stops and other retailers because of a 2010 law known as the Durbin Amendment that allows debit transactions to be routed over competing networks. DOJ alleges that Visa attempted to thwart the law by taking steps to “insulate itself from competition from emerging technologies,” and that the company, “recognized how innovative technologies could […] topple Visa鈥檚 control of debit transactions.”
In the credit card industry, 黑料社区has long maintained that payment processors are similarly able to levy excessive fees due to a lack of competition. Visa and Mastercard, who together control more than 80 percent of the card network market, explicitly prohibit transactions from being processed over other networks.
黑料社区continues to urge lawmakers to enact the Credit Card Competition Act, bipartisan legislation introduced in both the House and the Senate would require banks with over $100 billion in assets to enable cards to be processed over at least two unaffiliated networks, similar to the Durbin Amendment requirement for debit cards.
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