US to accuse Visa of illegal debit card monopoly, sources say

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Justice intends to charge Visa with illegally holding a monopoly on the U.S. debit card market, people familiar with the matter say.

The antitrust division is expected to file a lawsuit as early as Sept. 24 accusing the operator of the largest U.S. payment network of a range of anti-competitive practices, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the matter.

The U.S. government is expected to file the case in federal court.

Law enforcement is preparing to accuse Visa of taking steps to prevent rivals from challenging its dominant position in the debit card market, the people said.

The U.S. government accuses Visa of, among other things, entering into exclusivity agreements that were intended to hinder the development of competing payment networks, and of thwarting attempts by technology companies to enter the market.

Following the news, Visa shares fell 1.95% during the New York Stock Exchange trading session on September 23.

Visa and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.

The Justice Department lawsuit would be the culmination of years of investigations into Visa’s business practices.

The investigation began after the company’s failed takeover attempt by financial technology infrastructure company Plaid in 2021.

During the investigation, the Justice Department also examined Visa’s pricing structure for a technology known in the industry as “tokenization.” Tokenization refers to the process by which a piece of sensitive data — such as a credit card number — is converted into a unique value called a token.

Payments network rival Mastercard settled a separate enforcement action in 2023 targeting its tokenization technology practices brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which also enforces antitrust laws. BLOOMBERG