Visa (V) shares slipped amid reports that the payment processing giant is likely to be sued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as soon as Tuesday over allegedly monopolistic behavior to protect its dominant position in the debit card market.
The DOJ is preparing to accuse Visa of using tactics like exclusive agreements to prevent competitors from growing large enough to challenge its dominant position, Bloomberg reported Monday night. In a subsequent report, The New York Times said the DOJ is also planning to allege that Visa penalizes customers for using a different payment processing service.
A potential suit would follow years of investigative work from regulators after an antitrust lawsuit led Visa and competing payment processor Plaid to abandon merger talks in January 2021. The DOJ said at the time that the planned $5.3 billion merger was an example of Visa's monopolistic behavior, as it looked to acquire a potential rival before it was large enough to effectively challenge it.
The reportedly imminent lawsuit would be the latest move from the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in recent years to use antitrust laws to block mergers and challenge dominant companies like Ticketmaster parent Live Nation (LYV), Meta Platforms (META), Apple (AAPL), and Alphabet's Google (GOOGL).
Neither Visa nor the DOJ immediately responded to an Investopedia request for comment.
Visa shares fell 3.7% to $278.04 soon after markets opened Tuesday. They are up about 7% this year.
免責聲明：投資有風險，本文並非投資建議，以上內容不應被視為任何金融產品的購買或出售要約、建議或邀請，作者或其他用戶的任何相關討論、評論或帖子也不應被視為此類內容。本文僅供一般參考，不考慮您的個人投資目標、財務狀況或需求。TTM對信息的準確性和完整性不承擔任何責任或保證，投資者應自行研究並在投資前尋求專業建議。