DOJ slams Visa Inc for “rushing to trial” in $5.3bn merger case
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has responded to accusations by Visa Inc for delaying the trial in the case concerning Visa’s planned acquisition of Plaid.
Let’s recall that early this month, DOJ filed a lawsuit at the California Northern District Court, in an attempt to stop the proposed acquisition of Plaid Inc by Visa. Last week, it became clear that the parties in this case have rather different views on the time needed to prepare for trial in this matter. The defendants have proposed a February 23, 2021 trial date. DOJ, on the other hand, proposes September 7, 2021 as a trial start date.
According to Visa, “it is apparent that DOJ’s strategy in this action is to delay the trial as long as possible in the hopes that Defendants will simply abandon the transaction owing to the enormous pressure that time delays put on parties to substantial transactions”.
On November 20, 2020, the DOJ filed its response to Visa’s claims. According to the DOJ, the defendants propose an infeasible fifteen-week pre-trial period. The DOJ says that the defendants’ schedule is significantly faster than schedules adopted in the vast majority of merger cases – cases that involved fewer legal claims in less complex industries and did not occur during a global pandemic that will present its own unique challenges, particularly in obtaining discovery from third parties.
Furthermore, according to the DOJ, the defendants rejected limits on the total number of experts and simultaneously proposed a schedule giving the parties only two days to respond to rebuttal expert reports. Moreover, the DOJ notes that the defendants are demanding prematurely that the United States produce its investigative file without the benefit of a protective order or discovery request despite impermissibly withholding critical relevant documents from that file for months based on unsubstantiated privilege claims.
The Department of Justice argues that:
“Rushing to trial and depriving the United States of adequate discovery will harm the American public by impeding the government’s case against a monopolist”.
Accordingly, the DOJ proposes a trial start date of September 7, 2021. This date, the DOJ argues, is appropriately fast – a mere ten months after the complaint was filed – while allowing the United States adequate time to discover and properly present relevant evidence to the Court.