New York, Oct 18: An appeals court on Friday again upheld a ruling that Visa and MasterCard violated antitrust laws by barring their member banks from issuing credit and charge cards on rival networks.
The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals reiterated a decision issued September 17 by a panel of that court, with some changes. The original decision upheld a 2001 ruling by US District Judge Barbara Jones.
The case had been brought in 1998 by the US Department of Justice challenging the organisational structure of two of the four major US payment card systems. The complaint said that Visa and MasterCard, which are organised as joint ventures owned by their member banking institutions, conspired to restrain trade.
Jones had ruled that Visa and MasterCard broke antitrust laws by barring member banks from issuing American Express and Discover cards.
The card associations in late April agreed to pay a combined $3 billion to resolve a separate lawsuit over debit card fees brought by millions of retailers led by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Bureau Report