The US attacked Visa. They accuse her of illegally stopping competition – News

It’s Tuesday name US Department of Justice. Visa said the claims were baseless and would defend itself in court, Reuters reported.

According to the suit, Visa penalized businesses that wanted to use other payment networks and bribed potential competitors to maintain its market position. The moves have slowed innovation and caused significant additional costs for U.S. consumers and businesses, the department said.

Visa is one of the largest payment networks in the world. It processes more than 60 percent of debt transactions in the US. It earns about seven billion USD (157 billion CZK) annually in fees for transactions made through its network, the ministry said.

Visa legal representative Julie Rottenberg said competition is thriving in the debit card market. “When businesses and consumers choose Visa, it’s because of our secure and reliable network, world-class fraud protection and the value we deliver,” she said.

The effort to address the taxes is part of the administration of President Joe Biden’s fight against rising consumer prices. Inflation is also a major issue in the presidential election, in which Kamala Harris from the Democratic Party and Donald Trump from the Republican Party are running for the top positions. Elections will take place on November 5.

“Visa’s illegal behavior affects not just the price of one thing, but the price of almost everything,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. Merchants and banks pass on the costs of payment networks to consumers, he said.

Visa’s alleged monopolistic behavior began around 2012, when competitors entered the payments market after the reforms. The reforms required card issuers to accommodate unrelated networks, one Justice Department official said.

Visa struck lucrative deals with fintech rivals such as Apple, PayPal and payment system Block’s Square that those companies would not release products that threatened its dominant position, prosecutors said.

Visa also imposes significant financial penalties on merchants who do not conduct all or most transactions through the Visa network, according to the suit.

The lawsuit asks the court to enjoin Visa from imposing pricing structures that discourage competition and from paying competitors not to compete with it. This, they say, would bring back competition in processing debt payments online and in brick and mortar stores.

The Department of Justice began investigating Visa over its practices in the debit card market in 2021. That same year, it blocked the company’s takeover of the financial technology company Plaid.

Rival card company Mastercard announced in April that the sector was also being investigated.