In United States v. Visa U.S.A., et al., the Court found that Visa and MasterCard, together with their member banks, implemented and enforced illegal exclusionary agreements that required any U.S. bank that issued Visa or MasterCard general use credit cards to refuse to issue American Express (Amex) or Discover credit cards. Subsequently, Amex brought a civil action against Visa, MasterCard, and their member banks to recover damages arising from that anticompetitive conduct.
Econ One was retained by counsel representing Amex to determine the amount of profit that Amex lost as a result of the defendants’ conduct, as well as the continuing losses suffered by Amex as a result of the effects of that ongoing conduct. With the help of a team of over 20 Econ One staff members, Dr. Jeffrey Leitzinger submitted two expert reports and a declaration and he provided two days of deposition testimony. All defendants ultimately settled prior to trial, with Amex receiving a total at approximately $4 billion–more than three times the size of the largest previous recovery for a single plaintiff in the history of U.S. private antitrust litigation.
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