US sues Visa for monopoly on debit-card use affecting ‘price of nearly everything’

The US Department of Justice has sued Visa, accusing one of the world’s largest payment networks of antitrust violations that affect “the price of nearly everything”.

The financial giant has suppressed competition by threatening merchants with high fees and paying off potential rivals, according to the complaint, filed in US district court for the southern district of New York.

The lawsuit alleges that Visa makes it difficult for merchants to use alternatives, like lower-cost or smaller payment processors, instead of its own payment processing technology, without incurring what prosecutors described as “disloyalty penalties”.

Some $3.3tn in transactions were processed on Visa’s sprawling financial network in the latest quarter.

The firm processes more than 60% of debit transactions in the US, bringing it $7bn each year in fees collected when transactions are routed over its network, the justice department said. The company protects that dominance through agreements with card issuers, merchants and competitors, prosecutors allege.

The attempt to tackle such fees, sometimes known as swipe fees or interchange fees, is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to combat rising consumer prices, which have been a key issue on the presidential election campaign trail.

“We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” said the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, in a statement. “Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service.

“As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing – but the price of nearly everything.”

Visa described the complaint as “meritless” and vowed to “vigorously” defend itself. “Anyone who has bought something online, or checked out at a store, knows there is an ever-expanding universe of companies offering new ways to pay for goods and services,” Julie Rottenberg, the firm’s general counsel, said. “Today’s lawsuit ignores the reality that Visa is just one of many competitors in a debit space that is growing, with entrants who are thriving.”

The San Francisco-based company is valued at more than $500bn on the stock market. Its shares dropped by almost 5% following reports of the lawsuit.

Visa’s alleged anticompetitive conduct began around 2012, as competing companies entered the payments space following reforms that required card issuers to accommodate unaffiliated networks, a senior justice department official said.

The lawsuit seeks to have a judge in Manhattan impose requirements that would restore competition for services to process debit payments both online and at physical stores.

The justice department’s antitrust division began investigating Visa over its debit card practices in 2021, the same year it blocked the credit card company’s acquisition of the financial technology company Plaid. Its rival Mastercard said in April it was being investigated by the justice department as well.

Both companies have been in litigation for nearly two decades over their dominance in the cards market, and agreed in 2019 to pay US merchants $5.6bn to settle damages claims in a class-action lawsuit accusing them of anticompetitive practices.

Jon Donenberg, deputy director of the White House national economic council, said: “We do not have a comment on this DoJ lawsuit, but the Biden-Harris administration has been clear that the American economy thrives when there is real competition. This administration has also taken on credit card late fees and banking overdraft fees, and will continue working to take on other unfair junk fees on everyday transactions.”

Reuters and Associated Press contributed reporting