V Visa Inc

By Colin Kellaher

Shares of Visa Inc. fell nearly 5% on Friday after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department is investigating whether the largest U.S. card network is engaging in anticompetitive practices in the debit-card market.

People familiar with the matter told the Journal that the department's antitrust division has been gathering information and asking whether Visa has limited merchants' ability to route debit-card transactions over card networks that are often less expensive.

A Visa spokesman declined to comment, the Journal reported.

Visa shares were recently down 4.8% to $210.09.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 19, 2021 12:34 ET (16:34 GMT)

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