US Moves to Block Visa’s Acquisition of Online Payments Platform Plaid
upstart writes in with an IRC submission:
US moves to block Visa's acquisition of online payments platform Plaid:
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed an antitrust lawsuit in order to block Visa's acquisition of Plaid.
DoJ officials claim that Visa is already a "monopolist" in the online debit and payments space, and if the acquisition is allowed to proceed, this would stop Plaid from being able to "challenge Visa's monopoly."
[...] According to the complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California and made public on Thursday, the DoJ alleges that Plaid, now the "leading" financial data aggregation company in the US, intended to build a network that could eventually compete with Visa -- allowing consumers to pay merchants directly using their bank account details, with no need for a debit card.
[...] The complaint also cites Visa's largest competitor in the US, Mastercard, and alleges that deals with banks have stopped the rival company from truly competing against Visa.
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