Department of Justice Sues Visa, Alleges the Card Issuer Monopolizes Debit Card Markets

SAN FRANCISCO – FEBRUARY 25: Visa credit cards are arranged on a desk February 25, 2008 in San Francisco, California. Visa Inc. is hoping that its initial public offering could raise up to $19 billion and becoming the largest IPO in U.S. history. (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market. The complaint filed Tuesday says Visa penalizes merchants and banks who don’t use Visa’s own payment processing technology to process debit transactions, even though alternatives exist. It’s the latest in a recent spate of lawsuits brought by the Biden administration targeting alleged monopolistic practices. It also has sued big technology companies like Google and companies that act like middlemen such as Ticketmaster and RealPage.