Visa Reportedly Faces DOJ Antitrust Lawsuit Alleging Monopolization Of US Debit Card Market Amid Regulatory Crackdown

Visa Inc. V a global payments giant reportedly faces charges by the United States Department of Justice for allegedly monopolizing the domestic debit card industry

What Happened: DOJ’s antitrust division is expected to accuse Visa in federal court due to its participation in various anti-competitive activities, reported Bloomberg on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

These measures include exclusivity agreements intended to keep rivals from entering the debit card industry.

The case is the outcome of years-long research into Visa’s business practices that started in the wake of the company’s failed acquisition attempt of Plaid Inc in 2021. Visa’s “tokenization” technology pricing was also examined by the Justice Department.

According to the report, the government believes Visa’s actions hindered the expansion of rival networks and blocked technology companies from entering the market.

Last year, Mastercard Inc. settled a separate enforcement action by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission concerning its tokenization technology practices.

Visa and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment.

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Why It Matters: The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Visa is part of a larger series of antitrust cases that the federal agency is pursuing against big firms.

The DOJ has been aggressively pursuing prosecutions in recent times to stop monopolistic activities across various industries. For example, Alphabet Inc.’s AI strategy and market dominance in search are the subject of a DOJ investigation.

The DOJ has also been investigating other large technology companies, such as NVIDIA Corp., for possible antitrust breaches, however, the chipmaker clarified it has not received any subpoenas, the day after the company lost over $300 billion in market capital following the news.

Visa’s case comes after a series of well-known antitrust cases, such as one against TikTok, a social media company owned by ByteDance, for allegedly breaking children’s privacy rules.

Price Action: On Monday Visa Inc.’s stock traded at $288.63 and saw a gain of 1.36%. The stock fell 1.78% during after-hours trading. However, the data from Benzinga Pro suggests that Visa has risen by 11.50% so far this year.

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