TOTM
The Visa Case and the Perils of Prosecuting Discounts
Truth on the Market
View Original Source
The U.S. Justice Department’s (DOJ) antitrust case against Visa—filed under the Biden administration—has put the debit-card market in the spotlight. Recent reporting suggests the DOJ is doubling down on a theory that Visa’s volume-based incentives and routing arrangements amount to unlawful monopolization. That claim warrants skepticism: the practices under attack are routine, efficiency-enhancing features of competition across many industries, not evidence of monopoly power, and antitrust law has long treated them as lawful.