The Department of Justice is planning to sue Visa over allegations the company illegally monopolized the debit card market, according to a report first published by Bloomberg News.
The DOJ, which could file the suit as soon as Tuesday, is planning to argue that the financial services behemoth penalizes customers if they try to use competing services to process payments. It stems from a years-long investigation into Visa's business practices, during which the DOJ conducted hundreds of interviews with retailers, banks, and grocery stores, the New York Times said Monday.
It's not the first time the government has gone after Visa. In 2020, the DOJ sued to block a $5.3 billion deal to acquire financial technology company Plaid, Inc., saying Visa had "dominated online debit for years" and "protected its monopoly with exclusionary tactics."
The companies ended up walking away from the deal in 2021. At the time, the DOJ said, "American consumers and business owners rely on the internet to buy and sell goods and services, and Visa — which has immense power in online debit in the United States — has extracted billions of dollars from those transactions." The DOJ added, "Now that Visa has abandoned its anticompetitive merger, Plaid and other future fintech innovators are free to develop potential alternatives to Visa's online debit services."
The impending lawsuit is the latest in a string of such legal actions aimed at companies that federal regulators say engage in anticompetitive behavior. The Biden administration recently sued tech giants Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta, accusing them of abusing their power and blocking competition.
Kate McManus ✉
Kate McManus is a New Jersey-based Newsmax writer who's spent more than two decades as a journalist.
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