The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday sued Visa , the world's biggest payments network, saying it propped up an illegal monopoly over debit p

Justice Department accuses Visa of debit network monopoly that impacts price of 'nearly everything’

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2024-09-24 19:00:09

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday sued Visa , the world's biggest payments network, saying it propped up an illegal monopoly over debit payments by imposing "exclusionary" agreements on partners and smothering upstart firms.

Visa's moves over the years have resulted in American consumers and merchants paying billions of dollars in additional fees, according to the DOJ, which filed a civil antitrust suit in New York for "monopolization" and other unlawful conduct.

"We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a DOJ release.

"Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service," Garland said. "As a result, Visa's unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing – but the price of nearly everything."

Visa and its smaller rival MasterCard have surged in the past two decades, reaching a combined market cap of roughly $1 trillion, as consumers tapped credit and debit cards for store purchases and e-commerce instead of paper money. They are essentially toll collectors, shuffling payments between the merchants' banks and cardholders.