In Brief: Judge Denies U.S. Request in Card Suit

NEW YORK — U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones denied a request from the Justice Department to reopen the record in its antitrust suit against Visa and MasterCard.

The reopening had been sought to include information about the reorganization that MasterCard plans to make after it buys Europay International, in a deal announced in June.

At last summer’s trial, the card associations argued that their member-based structures justified exclusionary rules, which bar members from issuing American Express and Discover cards. The Justice Department had apparently sought to portray MasterCard’s reorganization to a for-profit corporation as undermining its justification for the exclusionary rule.

In a July 28 order, Judge Jones wrote that the information about MasterCard’s reorganization plan does not prove anything, and that furthermore, the government had missed its chance to address the issue during trial.

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