NEW YORK – Visa dropped a requirement that merchants treat Visa debit cards differently when used as PIN debit cards, prompting the Justice Department to close a federal antitrust investigation, the government said yesterday.
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The Justice Department had been looking into whether there was an anti-competitive concern with Visa's decision to treat Visa-branded debit cards differently when used as PIN debit cards and processed off the Visa network. When used as signature cards, Visa processes the transactions.
The Department opened its investigation to examine whether Visa’s operating regulation had the potential to reduce competition between Visa and the PIN debit networks.
