Mastercard says that the Department of Justice is looking into whether its debit card operations might be hurting competition.
In a regulatory filing with the SEC, the payments giant says it got a civil investigative demand from the DoJ last month. The DoJ asked for papers and information about a possible violation of the Sherman Act, which is a law about competition.
“The CID focuses on Mastercard’s US debit program and competition with other payment networks and technologies,” says the filing.
In 2021, the DoJ started a similar review into Visa to see if it had stopped merchants from sending debit transactions through cheaper networks.
The justice department sent more CIDs to Visa in January, asking for more information and papers.
Mastercard CFO Sachin Mehra said: “It’s not surprising that the DOJ would request information from other players in the debit space.”
