Two-Sided Credit Card Markets: The Supreme Court Takes Up Novel Antitrust Issue

Smith, Austin D.

Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service.

关键词: Commercial finance companies;    Supreme Court decisions;    Antitrust law;   

RP-ID  :  LSB10027
RP-ID  :  LSB10027_2017Nov13

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

This report discusses the case of "Ohio v. American Express" which the Supreme Court has accepted for hearing which poses the question of how federal antitrust law should treat two-sided markets which are platforms in which two distinct user groups operate in an interdependent way. The case challenges anti-steering clauses in American Express contract agreements with merchants that prevent the merchants from promoting the use of other credit cards. The case has the potential to change the way vendors accept card payments across the country--but the case also provides the Supreme Court with the opportunity to guide the lower courts that are increasingly confronting antitrust issues concerning two-sided markets. As a result, the American Express case raises several issues for Congress that could implicate its legislative and oversight roles with respect to the financial services industry and, more generally, the regulation of two-sided markets.