Walmart Sues Visa for $5B

Walmart Stores Inc. (Bentonville, Ark.) has sued Visa Inc. (Foster City, Calif.), claiming the credit card company has conspired with banks to fix transaction fees.

The retailer is seeking at least $5 billion in damages for what it claims are violations of federal antitrust laws.

“Visa’s monopoly power has enabled it to dictate price and inhibit competition,” Walmart said in its complaint. It charged that the card company’s conduct caused it to suffer “enormous damage” from January 2004 to late November 2012. No banks are named as defendants in the case.

Walmart objects to the requirement that retailers who want to accept any payments via Visa honor all issuers’ Visa-branded cards. “There is no competition because merchants are prevented from realizing the price-reducing benefits that would result if issuers competed” over the fees they charged retailers who agreed to accept their cards for payment, according to Wal-Mart’s complaint.

In filing its own claim, Walmart has dropped out the settlement of a nationwide, multi-billion dollar class action antitrust settlement against Visa and with Visa and MasterCard Inc. (Purchase, N.Y.). That settlement, initially valued at $7.25 billion and approved in federal court in December 2013, is now worth about $5.7 billion after Walmart and dozens of other retailers bowed out to pursue their own claims.

Visa sued Walmart last June to try to stop it from bringing its own case, saying it sought to prevent “the continuation of endless, wasteful litigation between the parties.”