Visa class action claims co. engages anticompetitive practices

Visa class action lawsuit overview: 

• Who: Lindy Griffith filed a class action lawsuit against Visa Inc. 
• Why: Griffith claims Visa used anticompetitive practices to raise the price of debit network fees.
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in New York federal court. 

Visa engages in anticompetitive conduct that artificially raised the price of debit network fees to “supracompetitive” prices, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiff Lindy Griffith’s class action lawsuit claims Visa monopolized the debit network market and leveraged its power to “suppress competition by punishing retailers for using alternative networks.”

Griffith argues Visa also entered into contracts to pay off potential competitors or prevent the development of substitute networks. 

“Visa engages in these anticompetitive practices to protect its debit network business, retain its market power and continue to reap sky-high profit margins fueled by supracompetitive fees,” the Visa class action says. 

Griffith wants to represent a nationwide class of consumers who purchased goods or services with a general purpose Visa debit card and indirectly paid Visa network fees during the applicable limitations period through the present. 

Visa violates state antitrust, consumer protection laws, class action claims

Griffith argues more than 60% of debit transactions are processed through Visa’s debit network each year, reaping the company more than $7 billion in fees. 

“Visa’s U.S. debit business is its biggest revenue source, earning more than its credit network and any other debit network it runs across the globe,” the Visa debit class action says. 

Griffith claims Visa violates the Sherman Act and state antitrust and consumer protection laws. 

The plaintiff demands a jury trial and requests declaratory and injunctive relief and an award of damages for herself and all class members. 

A New York-based online company filed a similar class action lawsuit against Visa earlier this year over claims the digital payments company monopolized debit card networks and charged artificially inflated prices for its debit products. 

Have you paid Visa network fees after making a purchase with a Visa debit card? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Allen J. Underwood II and Bruce D. Greenberg of Lite DePalma Greenberg & Afanador LLC and Jason S. Hartley and Jason M. Lindner of Hartley LLP. 

The Visa class action lawsuit is Griffith, et al. v. Visa Inc., Case No. 1:24-cv-09374, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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