Anti-trust suit opens against Visa, Mastercard

NEW YORK, JUNE 13. Credit card giants Visa and Mastercard have rejected government accusations that the two companies had colluded to stifle competition in the U.S. credit and charge card market.

On the first day of the anti-trust trial against the two companies in a Federal Court here, attorney's for Visa and Mastercard attacked their primary rival, American express, accusing the company of having put pressure on the U.S. government to bring the suit.

``In fact, the biggest potential beneficiary of this case is one of our major competitors, American Express, not consumers," said Mr. Kelly Presta, one of visa's lawyers, in a statement to the press.

The two companies control some 75 per cent of the credit and charge card market between the two of them.In their arguments to judge Barbara Jones, the lawyers stressed visa and Mastercard were non-profit banking associations, offering banks opportunity to issue credit cards in their own names while having payments processed for a fee.

"There is not a level playing field in between these associations and for-profit organisations such as American express and discover," said one of Mastercard's attorneys. In addition to American express, U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is involved in the suit on behalf of its network of discover credit cards. The suit, filed by the U.S. justice department, dates back to October 1998 when Federal authorities contested the joint control by the two networks by the same group of banks.

- AFP

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Section  : Business
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