American Express suing credit card companies over antitrust violations

Eileen Alt Powell

Monday, Nov. 15, 2004 | 9:15 a.m.

NEW YORK -- American Express Co., the travel and financial services giant, said today it was suing Visa and MasterCard over anticompetitive business practices.

The way for the lawsuit was cleared by the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 4, when it issued a final ruling in an antitrust case brought by the Justice Department, which accused the two biggest card associations in America, Visa USA Inc. and MasterCard International Inc., of restraining competition.

The high court's decision let stand a lower court ruling requiring Visa and MasterCard to allow their member banks to issue competing cards. That cleared the way for American Express of New York and Discover Financial Services Inc., a division of the New York-based Morgan Stanley, to begin partnering with U.S. financial institutions.

Immediately after the Supreme Court ruling was announced, Discover Financial Services filed an antitrust suit against MasterCard and Visa in U.S. District Court in New York seeking unspecified damages for alleged anticompetitive behavior that kept it out of the lucrative bank market.

Suits filed under antitrust law can seek triple damages.

American Express Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Chenault said at the time that his company would consider a private lawsuit "a very viable, very attractive option."

Also today, Discover Financial Services announced that it was merging with PULSE EFT Association card processing network in a deal valued at $311 million.

The merger agreement, which is subject to regulatory and PULSE member approval, is expected to close in approximately 60 days.

"We believe the combination of the PULSE and Discover networks will create a leading electronic payments company offering a full range of products and services that will represent an attractive choice for financial institutions, merchants and consumers," said David W. Nelms, Discover's chairman and chief executive. "Together, we intend to be a robust competitor in the important and rapidly growing debit market." Discover hasn't yet announced any deals.

Visa and MasterCard are nonprofit associations made up of thousands of banks.

American Express said in disclosing its suit that David Boies, a founding partner of Boies, Schiller & Flexner would handle the litigation.

Earlier this month, credit card issuer MBNA Corp. began rolling out its new American Express-branded cards in the first deal between American Express and a U.S. financial institution.