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were blocking retailers from routing contactless and The Intuit lawsuit also takes
mobile debit card payments through the regional ATM/ aim at debit card routing, alleging
POS networks. The FTC, which shares jurisdiction with
the DOJ on key antitrust matters, has been mum on that Visa and Mastercard are thwarting
since late 2019, but these investigations often take years.
choice in violation of the Durbin
In February, the financial software giant Intuit filed Amendment.
a lawsuit in federal district court against Visa and
Mastercard, alleging interchange rate setting amounts to
unlawful price fixing. Intuit, which in addition to being "Now that Visa has abandoned its anticompetitive
a card-accepting merchant, is also an ISO and a payment merger, Plaid and other future fintech innovators are free
facilitator supporting millions of users of QuickBooks, the to develop potential alternatives to Visa's online debit
company's small business accounting package. This is the services," said Makan Delrahin, an assistant U.S. attorney
first time, to my knowledge, that any ISO or payfac has in the Trump Administration, said at the time.
sued the card brands over interchange.
All this noise about debit card routing could force the
The Intuit lawsuit also takes aim at debit card routing, hands of Congress and/or the Fed and result in some type of
alleging Visa and Mastercard are thwarting choice in requirement being imposed on functionality that makes it
violation of the Durbin Amendment. easier for merchants to route debit card payments through
regional ATM/Pos networks. Regulators in Australia gave
Last year, the DOJ sued Visa over its planned acquisition banks until April 2018 to offer merchants such a choice or
of Plaid, a fintech used by popular financial apps like face regulatory action. Watch this space.
Venmo and Square Cash that connects users to their bank
accounts. Visa was prepared to pay $5.3 billion for Plaid,
but backed down after the DOJ asserted the acquisition Patti Murphy is senior editor at The Green Sheet and self-described
would further cement Visa's "monopolist" hold on the payments maven of the fourth estate. Follow her on Twitter @GS_
online debit market. PayMaven.