Black Card, doing business as Luxury Card, has filed an antitrust lawsuit in the US District Court against Visa and its member banks, JPMorgan Chase and Capital One over high-end credit card.
In the complaint, Black Card claimed that the banks have been working together since 2007 to undermine its business and control the affluent credit card market by themselves.
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The complaint further accused Visa, JPMorgan and Capital One of pretending to be partners, along with fraudulent concealment of their plans, marketing ideas and strategies from Black Card.
The complaint stated: “The purpose of the agreements between Visa, JPMorgan, and Capital One on the one hand, and between Visa and Plaintiff on the other, was not to foster competition, but to allow JPMorgan, Capital One, and potentially other big banks and Visa partners to control the affluent credit card market and ensure that it did not become truly competitive, so that the lion’s share of the outsized market profits would continue to flow to them.”
Black Card also alleged that Visa paid JPMorgan around $200m as marketing incentives to aid the quick launch of Chase Sapphire card launch for an anticompetitive advantage against its products.
It was alleged that Visa invested about $150m in Capital One’s Venture Card for stopping it from purchasing Black Card.
Black Card said that the alleged scheme was highly disruptive to its business and is seeking payment of treble damages, as well as costs incurred for the lawsuit.
