Complaint: U.S. v. Visa Inc. and Plaid Inc. (justice.gov)

Visa and Plaid Abandon Merger After Antitrust Division’s Suit to Block | OPA | Department of Justice

Did the DoJ mischaracterize the competitive market in which Plaid operates?  Clearly, Visa has market power in debit originations.  But does Plaid actually offer debit origination services?  Would the DoJ’s market analysis have held up if the case had litigated?

The DoJ’s success in blocking Visa’s acquisition of Plaid signals that mergers between payments providers and fintechs that sell services in payments adjacent markets will attract a high level of scrutiny for anti-competitive effects but a fuzzy, broad definition by DoJ of the competitive market for payment services.