-
It's looking more likely that a judge will have to impose a fix that will bring American Express' merchant rules into compliance with federal law.
March 25 -
If you thought American Express' loss Thursday of a big antitrust case would help its rivals, think again. Visa, MasterCard, and even card-issuing banks could be hurt by the race to lower merchant fees that the ruling will set off.
February 19 -
A court-imposed deadline for American Express to negotiate a fix to its merchant rules with the Department of Justice is about three weeks away. Odds of a deal are said to be low, heightening uncertainty and fueling debate about how the showdown will affect the future of the credit card business.
February 26 -
Costco has picked Visa as its new payment card network and Citigroup as the new issuer of its cobranded credit cards.
March 2 -
American Express will certainly suffer when its 16-year cobranding deal with Costco ends in 2016, but its executives will spend the next year building up the card brand's digital payment products to create enough opportunities to ease the company's short-term pain and guarantee its long-term health.
February 12
American Express is planning for a protracted legal battle with the Justice Department in order to defend its ability to structure merchant contracts as it sees fit, company officials said Wednesday.
Amex will ask a federal court to stay a recent ruling that its merchant contracts violated antitrust law, Chief Executive Kenneth Chenault said during the company's annual investor day in New York. U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis
Garaufis had first ordered Amex and the department to seek a compromise on how to reform the practice, but he will now have to decide on a fix himself after the two sides
"We will ask for a stay so that our current merchant processes and customer experience stay in effect pending the outcome of the appeal," Chenault said. "Regardless of who won at this stage of the trial, it was highly likely that the outcome would be appealed and we were always expecting a lengthy process."
Amex, which charges merchants the highest average costs of any major card network, is concerned that it could lose market share if retailers are allowed to encourage the use of cheaper cards, a practice known as "steering." Amex is the only company still contesting the Justice Department's efforts over the past five years to stamp out the practice; Visa and MasterCard agreed to allow the practice in 2011.
Federal prosecutors want Amex's reforms to mirror the Visa and MasterCard settlements, an idea Chenault rejected. Amex wants to keep far more restrictive provisions about when merchants can offer perks.
"Fighting this suit was the right call in 2010 and continuing to fight is the right call now," Chenault said Wednesday. "Agreeing to the same settlement terms as Visa and MasterCard four and a half years ago would have been tantamount to a loss."
Some analysts
Amex General Counsel Laureen Seeger argued Wednesday that the fight is about more than just finances the company wants to defend its autonomy to structure merchant contracts as it wishes, she said.
"Whether or not steering is occurring today or will occur in the future, we wish to preserve our right to contract with our customers and our merchants the way that we feel is appropriate for the long term, and that's why we are maintaining the lawsuit," she said.
