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.
“Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service,” Garland said.
They are essentially toll collectors, shuffling payments between the merchants’ banks and cardholders.
″Visa wields its dominance, enormous scale, and centrality to the debit ecosystem to impose a web of exclusionary agreements on merchants and banks,” the DOJ said in its release.
“These agreements penalize Visa’s customers who route transactions to a different debit network or alternative payment system.”This is a developing story.
Persons:
monopolization, “, General Merrick Garland, ” Garland
Organizations:
U.S . Justice, Visa, DOJ, “, MasterCard, fintech, Plaid, Mastercard
Locations:
New York, U.S