U.S. Sues Visa to Stop Plaid Deal Over Antitrust ConcernsThe...

U.S. Sues Visa to Stop Plaid Deal Over Antitrust Concerns

The U.S. Justice Department sued to block Visa Inc.’s $5.3 billion acquisition of Plaid Inc., accusing Visa of trying to buy the financial-technology firm to eliminate an emerging threat to its online debit business.

The Justice Department accused Visa of a “long history” of entering into agreements to quash nascent competition. The department said Visa convinced an unamed major technology company not to build or support technologies that would disrupt its business in exchange for substantial fee reductions.

Visa is currently in negotiations to renew this ongoing agreement, the complaint says, and the network is demanding that the technology company continue to abide by these practices, “including not encouraging customers to use less expensive payment methods and prohibiting marketing to non Visa options during payment checkout.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-05/visa-said-to-face-u-s-antitrust-suit-over-plaid-acquisition?sref=DWzi38c2&source=news_body_link