“The US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Visa for illegally monopolizing the debit card market. The company has been accused of stifling competition and charging excessive fees, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars.”, — write on: unn.ua
Details
The agency alleges that for more than a decade, Visa abused its dominant market position to stifle competition. The complaint alleges that Visa penalizes retailers and banks that use alternative technologies to process debit transactions.
The company itself receives a commission from each transaction that passes through its network.
According to the Justice Department’s complaint, 60% of debit transactions in the United States go through the Visa network, allowing it to collect more than $7 billion a year in fees.
We allege that Visa was unlawfully able to charge fees far in excess of what it could have charged in a competitive market. Trade organizations and banks transfer these costs to consumers either by increasing prices or by reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s illegal actions affect not only the price of one product, but the price of almost everything
The US Department of Justice said that Visa enjoys a huge volume of transactions through its network and requires banks and retailers, as well as financial institutions that issue debit cards, to conduct a certain number of transactions through Visa.
This makes it difficult for merchants to use alternatives, including cheaper or smaller payment processors, because they are subject to what the Justice Department described as “disloyalty penalties” from Visa.
We will remind
The US Department of Justice and 16 state attorneys general have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the iPhone maker of illegally monopolizing the smartphone market.