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Page Number: 28.0

4 

OHIO v. AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

or  she  bought.    The  cardholder  also  often  pays  the  card 
company  a  fee,  such  as  an  annual  fee  for  the  card  or  an
interest charge for delayed payment.  I shall call that kind 
of transaction a shopper-related card service.  The credit-
card company can earn revenue from the sale (directly or
indirectly) of each of these services: (1) speedy payment for 
merchants, and (2) credit for shoppers.  (I say “indirectly” 
to reflect the fact that card companies often create or use 
networks of banks as part of the process—but I have found 
nothing here suggesting that that fact makes a significant 
difference to my analysis.)

Sales of the two basic card services are related.  A shop­
per  can  pay  for  a  purchase  with  a  particular  credit  card
only  if  the  merchant  has  signed  up  for  merchant-related
card services with the company that issued the credit card
that the shopper wishes to use.  A firm in the credit-card 
business is therefore unlikely to make money unless quite 
a few merchants agree to accept that firm’s card and quite
a few shoppers agree  to carry and use it.  In general, the
more  merchants  that  sign  up  with  a  particular  card  com­
pany, the more useful that card is likely to prove to shop­
pers  and  so  the  more  shoppers  will  sign  up;  so  too,  the
more  shoppers  that  carry  a  particular  card,  the  more
useful  that  card  is  likely  to  prove  to  merchants  (as  it 
obviously helps them obtain the shoppers’ business) and so
the  more  merchants  will  sign  up.    Moreover,  as  a  rough 
rule of thumb (and assuming constant charges), the larger 
the  networks  of  paying  merchants  and  paying  shoppers
that  a  card  firm  maintains,  the  larger  the  revenues  that
the  firm  will  likely  receive,  since  more  payments  will  be
processed using its cards.  Thus, it is not surprising that a 
card  company  may  offer  shoppers  incentives  (say,  points
redeemable  for  merchandise  or  travel)  for  using  its  card 
or  that  a  firm  might  want  merchants  to  accept  its  card
exclusively.