WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday finalized its consent decree with Visa and MasterCard, marking another huge win for retailers to move into a completive market with the credit card companies.
In October 2010, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit alleging that Visa and MasterCard were violating the Sherman Act with their anti-competitive and deceptive credit card pricing policies, marking the first time that the DOJ intervened against the anti-competitive practices to force price competition. Visa and MasterCard settled with the DOJ. With that decision, merchants are now able to offer consumers discounts between cards and force the cards to compete on cost.
"The United States has carefully considered the various questions and suggestions contained in the comments and continues to believe that the proposed Final Judgment will provide an effective and appropriate remedy for the antitrust violations alleged in the Amended Complaint" against MasterCard and Visa, stated the DOJ.
The Merchants Payments Coalition, of which NACS is a founding member, issued the following statement regarding yesterday€™s announcement:
"Merchants across the country applaud the Department of Justice for recognizing Visa and MasterCard€™s anti-competitive actions and moving forward with its litigation. The initial consent decree released in October and today's settlement reinforce Congress€™ efforts to rein in the anti-competitive fees and provide a useful complement to the pending swipe fee reforms that address debit cards. While the congressional reforms address debit cards, this much-needed action is an important first step towards correcting anti-competitive practices in the credit card market.
"Unfortunately, based on past experience, merchants expect that Visa and MasterCard will continue doing everything possible to hide their prices, prevent full competition and continue the bad acts that drew antitrust action in the first place €" regardless of the terms of the settlement. American Express takes the cake in its affront to Main Street as it fights in court to prevent Americans from getting discounts at the register.
"Merchants across the country look forward to continued investigations of Visa and MasterCard€™s anti-competitive practices by the Department of Justice so that business owners and their customers will have a fully competitive system in the future."