Visa, DOJ Clash Over Evidence Ahead of Debit Antitrust Trial

Visa operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, connecting banks, merchants and consumers across the financial system. Litigation involving the company’s business practices could have broad implications for competition in the U.S. payments market. The pretrial discovery process will allow the Justice Department and Visa to assemble evidence, test each side’s claims and define the issues that may ultimately proceed to trial.

Visa has delivered as many as 6 million documents to the U.S. Department of Justice as part of the litigation’s pretrial investigation and discovery process. The judge overseeing the case ordered both the U.S. government and Visa to complete all pretrial evidence submissions by the end of January, setting a firm deadline for the parties before the case advances to its next procedural stage.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued Visa in federal court in Manhattan on Sept. 24, 2024, accusing the payments company of preserving an unlawful monopoly through restrictive contracts and payments to potential rivals. The DOJ says Visa routes more than 60% of U.S. debit transactions and collects over $7 billion in annual processing fees. Whether debit networks form a distinct antitrust market will determine how the court measures Visa’s power and any competitive harm.

U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl denied Visa’s motion to dismiss on June 23, 2025, finding the DOJ had plausibly excluded interbank systems such as ACH and RTP at the pleading stage. As the case moved toward trial by Aug. 11, 2026, lawyers expected Visa to renew its argument that the government’s market is too narrow. A broader market including alternative payment rails could reduce Visa’s calculated share, making the court’s definition central to liability and any eventual remedy.