American Express v. Visa, MasterCard et al.(credit card's exclusionary policies under antitrust laws)

Publication: Corporate Counsel

Publication Date: 01-FEB-05

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2005 American Lawyer Media L.P.

The American Express Company says that Visa and MasterCard haven't paid their bills. On November 15 the New York-based credit card company sued its two largest competitors, Visa U.S.A. Inc. and MasterCard Incorporated, claiming that they unfairly impeded American Express's ability to issue its cards through U.S. banks. For years, Visa and MasterCard have allowed banks who belong to their credit card associations to issue cards for the other association, but not for any other rivals. The U.S. Department of Justice challenged the policies as improperly exclusionary under antitrust laws, and in 2001 the U.S. district court in New York enjoined them.

American Express filed its suit six weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.