(Reuters) – Visa disclosed on Wednesday it had received demands from the U.S. Department of Justice for additional documents and information over its debit card practices in the United States and competition with other payment networks.
The civil investigative demands from the anti-trust division of the DoJ were made on May 2 and add to the ongoing probe that has been underway since early 2021 on whether Visa uses anti-competitive practices in the debit card market.
The company is cooperating with the division in connection with the investigation, Visa said in a regulatory filing.
Shares in the world’s largest payments processor were down 1.4% in afternoon trading.
Rival Mastercard had, in April, also disclosed a probe by the DoJ for similar practices.
Both Visa and Mastercard have faced increasing scrutiny in recent years over their dominance in the cards market.
In 2019, the European Union accepted an offer by Visa and Mastercard to cut fees on payments made by tourists using cards issued outside the bloc to stave off fines and end an EU antitrust investigation.
(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
