The Visa matter was a civil Antitrust action brought by the United States Department of Justice against Visa U.S.A. Inc., Visa International Corp., and MasterCard International Incorporated (collectively, “Visa”). A central economic question bearing on the defendants' Market Power was the profitability of the U.S. credit-card business—specifically, whether the credit-card issuers earned returns in excess of their cost of capital, a result that would be inconsistent with a competitive market. The defendants’ expert had analyzed the profitability of the credit-card industry and concluded that there was no indication of average rates of return exceeding the cost of capital.
On behalf of the Department of Justice, Mark E. Zmijewski— Professor Emeritus at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business—was retained to evaluate the report, analyses, and opinions of the defendants’ expert. Professor Zmijewski was supported by Keith Bockus, Erik Himan, and Pavel Nikolov.