Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, December 9, 2022, is below. Payments again feature prominently in this week’s Update as American Express (not to be outdone by Mastercard’s recent announcement)...more
With the increased activity of state attorneys general, many companies today find themselves at the center of political battles over the role businesses play in driving social policy. We feature one recent example, as a case...more
A group of 24 AGs led by Montana AG Austin Knudsen and Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti sent a letter to the CEOs of three major credit card companies, American Express, MasterCard, and Visa, expressing their concerns about a...more
Since its last enforcement action against Banco Popular in late May, OFAC has been quiet on the enforcement front. Notwithstanding its silence, OFAC has been managing a robust and complex coordinated economic sanctions...more
Welcome back to the "Sports & Entertainment Spotlight." We’re just one week into March Madness, and already my predictions from last week are coming to fruition (if only I had the same luck picking winners of the games...more
On Monday, November 22, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that “umbrella” plaintiffs—i.e., antitrust class action claimants who purchase from a non-conspirator a...more
After more than half a year without a leader, the WTO is poised to welcome its “first woman and first African” to the role in the form of Nigerian economist and former finance minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. ...more
The mobile payments sector is on regulatory tenterhooks following the increase in the use of mobile wallets and the entry of new competitors, including tech companies, in the sector. The European Commission ("EC") just...more
In Washington: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in a Thursday morning letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pressed the White House for a response to the Democrats' latest coronavirus relief package proposal....more
In the last two years, OFAC has brought four enforcement actions that focus on an organization’s “screening errors.” These include: American Express; (2) Cobham Metalics; (3) Apple; and (4) Amazon. In today’s posting, I will...more
Rising infection rates around the U.S. and the globe are worrying markets, as fear of a second wave of cases linked with the reopening of the economy freaks out traders....more
Paul Singer and the Elliott Mgmt crew have a new target in their sights: Twitter’s founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey. Singer’s Elliott fund has amassed a “significant stake” in the company—perhaps as much as a billion—and is...more
As of January 1, 2020, California became the first state to permit residents whose personal information is exposed in a data breach to seek statutory damages between $100-$750 per incident, even in the absence of any actual...more
In a dispute involving fraudulent charges, the District of Connecticut required American Express and the cardmember to resolve their issue in arbitration, pursuant to the cardmember agreement, as amended. AmEx provided notice...more
The week’s stories remind us how quickly things continue to change in the distribution landscape. Enjoy....more
We’ve got details on China’s proposed trade peace deal along with thoughts on whether it’ll be sufficient to satisfy a White House that’s been itching for a fight....more
This week’s Update features a variety of stories on traditional GDS, metasearch and wholesale channels. Enjoy....more
On November 15, 2018, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice settled a two-and-a-half year long lawsuit against Atrium Health, a North Carolina hospital system formerly known as the Carolinas HealthCare...more
Markets around the world took a beating yesterday amidst concerns about steel tariffs and other rising commodity costs, an economic slowdown in China, and brewing trouble in the EU. US stocks rallied by the end of the day to...more
The FBI and OCC have each launched inquiries into pricing practices within American Express’s forex unit with an aim to determine “whether the foreign-exchange international payments department misrepresented pricing to...more
The Journal is breaking news this morning that American Express has been raising forex prices on customers for years “without notifying customers in a bid to boost revenue and employee commissions”....more
On June 25, 2018, the Supreme Court held that American Express Co.’s “non-discrimination” rules that prevented merchants from steering customers to other credit card brands do not violate the federal antitrust laws....more
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided its first antitrust case in almost three years, establishing a new rule that in the two-sided credit card network market, a plaintiff must analyze both the merchant services side and the...more
A divided U.S. Supreme Court sided with American Express Company and American Express Travel Related Services Company (Amex) over Ohio, sixteen other states and the United States based on the Court’s application of the theory...more
In a 5-4 decision in Ohio v. American Express, the Supreme Court affirmed that the anti-steering provisions of American Express’s merchant agreement do not violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act....more