MasterCard Antitrust Litigations

Over the course of a decade, Analysis Group has been involved in the largest and most significant antitrust litigation involving payment cards on behalf of our client, MasterCard. We worked with MasterCard on numerous cases brought by the US government, competitors, merchants, and consumers. The issues in these cases have included governance, issuance restrictions, debit cards, smart cards, foreign currency conversion, and the structure of interchange. We supported numerous experts who have evaluated the competitive effects of industry structure, competitive strategy issues, and "but-for" damages. In addition, we provided significant strategic support to counsel and worked closely to ensure coordination across experts retained by codefendants. In WalMart et al. v. Visa and MasterCard and American Express v. Visa and MasterCard (and related litigations), we supported our academic experts in the development, implementation, and analysis of consumer surveys designed to understand customer preferences for payment cards and the benefits to retailers of accepting payment cards, the results of which were used to support our experts' damages models. In another case of particular note, US DOJ v. MasterCard International and Visa, the judge cited our expert's testimony in finding that "the Government has failed to prove that the governance structures of the Visa and MasterCard associations have resulted in a significant adverse effect on competition or consumer welfare."