Joint Conduct

Visa and MasterCard claims are “fanciful”, retailers tell UK Supreme Court

Retailers have pushed back against Visa’s and MasterCard’s claims that their interchange fees are exempt from competition law, arguing that any purported benefits must go to merchants – not cardholders – to outweigh the fees’ restriction of competition.

MasterCard: let us “wield a broad axe” to defend conduct

Empirical data should not be required to prove a company’s conduct is exempt from competition law, counsel to MasterCard has argued to the UK Supreme Court.

Lower court conflated facts with law, Visa tells UK Supreme Court

A UK appeals court was wrong to find that Visa’s and Mastercard’s multilateral interchange fees are anticompetitive, because it ignored evidence that the level of the fees did not affect merchants’ ability to negotiate with banks, Visa’s counsel has argued.

Visa and MasterCard claims are “fanciful”, retailers tell UK Supreme Court

MasterCard: let us “wield a broad axe” to defend conduct

Lower court conflated facts with law, Visa tells UK Supreme Court

GCR USA

The government always wins: The Tipline for 23 January 2020

Former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart would have turned 105 today. His definition of obscenity – “I know it when I see it” – has been passed down through the ages, but it is not to be overshadowed by his dissenting opinion in Citizen Publishing. There, he took issue with the court’s seven-to-one order finding that a joint operating agreement between two Arizona newspapers violated federal antitrust laws. Justice Stewart said the sole consistency he could find in litigation brought under section 7 of the Clayton Act is that “the government always wins.” Congress has since given newspapers antitrust exemptions for joint operating agreements.