United States v. Visa Inc. and Plaid Inc. — U.S. District Court, N.D. Cal.

Case summary

The United States filed a complaint on November 5, 2020 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Visa Inc. and Plaid Inc., No. 4:20-cv-07810, to stop Visa's proposed acquisition of Plaid. The complaint pleads that the acquisition violates Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2, and Section 7 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 18. It alleges that Visa is a monopolist in online debit transactions with approximately 70% of that market and that Plaid, which has access to financial data from over 11,000 U.S. banks, was developing a substitute for Visa's online debit services. The case was reassigned twice in November 2020. The filings on this page end with a discovery order of January 6, 2021 and notices of appearance dated January 8, 2021.

Case at a glance

What does the complaint allege?

That Visa controls approximately 70% of the online debit transactions market, that in 2019 it processed about 43 billion debit transactions including more than 10 billion online, and that it earned over $4 billion from its debit business including about $2 billion from online debit.

Why does the complaint say Visa sought to buy Plaid?

It quotes Visa's CEO describing the purchase as an "insurance policy" to neutralize a "threat to our important US debit business", and pleads that acquiring Plaid would eliminate a nascent competitive threat.

What happened procedurally?

The action was first assigned to Magistrate Judge Kandis A. Westmore, then reassigned in November 2020 — first to the San Jose division and then to Judge Jeffrey S. White in the Oakland division — with all hearing and trial dates then scheduled vacated.

Summary written from the documents on this page; every sentence is sourced.