Law and Regulation

Reaction from the payments industry to the Justice Department’s announcement Tuesday that it is suing Visa Inc. over antitrust issues involving its debit card business was swift and pointed. As expected, representatives of the payments industry denounced the lawsuit as baseless, while representatives of the merchant community and legislators friendly …

The U.S. Department of Justice’s 71-page complaint accusing Visa Inc. of monopolizing U.S. debit networks goes into great detail about the company’s pricing strategies and attempts to get merchants and card issuers to direct their debit business toward Visa. Those efforts have been quite successful. Referring to Visa’s so-called “moat” …

The biggest question the payments industry is wrestling with this week is whether the U.S. Department of Justice is about to sue Visa Inc., apparently over debit card issues. The financial wires were abuzz with speculation Tuesday morning that the DoJ could file an antitrust lawsuit before the day is …

Acquirers and independent sales organizations wanting to improve their standing among merchants should take note of four trends affecting payments today, according to Bill Dobbins, head of acquiring and enablement at Visa Inc. Dobbins, speaking at the Western States Acquirers Association conference in Las Vegas this week, outlined why the …

The Electronic Payments Coalition late Wednesday filed an Amicus brief on behalf of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act. The lawsuit, brought by Illinois Bankers Association, Illinois Credit Union League, American Bankers Association, and America’s Credit Unions and filed last month in the United …

Rain Technology, a provider a directional-display technology, has developed a solution that aims at reducing the risk of onlookers visually stealing a consumer’s PIN at an ATM. The solution, called ATM Switchable Privacy, enables as little as 0.2% of an ATM screen to be visible outside of a 45-degree viewing …

Mastercard Inc. announced early Thursday it has acquired cybersecurity firm Recorded Future for $2.65 billion. The acquisition builds on Mastercard’s strategy of investing in fraud detection and cyber defense technologies, the network says. The deal also enhances Mastercard’s identity, fraud prevention, real-time decisioning, and cybersecurity services for merchants and financial …

Fraud attacks initiated by automated bots using artificially generated images, also known as deepfakes, are becoming a major problem in the payments industry, according to a report Wednesday from AU10TIX, a provider of identity-verification and risk-management technology. Overall, 32% of all Internet traffic during the second quarter was driven by …

Retailing giant Costco Wholesale Corp. has contracted with technology company Vontier to install new payments devices and software at the chain’s 76 fueling stations in Canada, starting next month. Vontier two years ago acquired Invenco, a company that included long-time fueling-technology provider Gilbarco Veeder-Root. Payment processor Silverflow said it has reached a new agreement …

Merchants in the United States paid $224 billion in card-acceptance costs in 2023, the highest toll for merchants in any country in the world, according to payment consultancy CMSPI’s State of the Industry Report. Interchange fees alone accounted for $143 billion of that total. Since 2009, U.S. merchants’ like-for-like payment …