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Priceless

Priceless

The Case that Brought Down the Visa/MasterCard Bank CartelConstantine, Lloyd

Priceless

Length8h 48m

About this audiobook

Lloyd Constantine began his career in legal services, representing impoverished clients in civil rights and constitutional cases. Decades later, he would make headlines for representing retailers and consumers against a cartel that undermined one of the fundamental tenets of commerce in America: competition. A man who thrives on competition himself, Constantine now gives us the insider's story on the biggest antitrust lawsuit in history—a case that pitted his small firm against financial-industry giants Visa and MasterCard, along with Clifford-Chance, the largest law firm in the world.Combining the real-life legal drama of A Civil Action with the relentless pace of a John Grisham novel, Constantine delivers the definitive account of a case that made history and will be studied for years to come. Beginning in the 1980s, when Visa and MasterCard—whose combined market share topped 95 percent—announced the merger of their debit card networks, Priceless traces the fallout of this catastrophic union, from raised eyebrows among attorney generals to the launch of a major class-action lawsuit. For the five merchants initially represented by Constantine's firm (Wal-Mart, Sears, Circuit City, Safeway, and The Limited), the reality of the situation was clear: millions of U.S. businesses were being illegally coerced in a scheme that forced excessive fees on merchants every time a customer used a debit card. When a $3.4 billion settlement was reached in 2003, the court estimated that the case would save stores and shoppers up to $87 billion in the first decade alone.A suspense-filled story with a vibrant cast of characters—and a smoking-gun document known as "The Shark"—Priceless travels from corporate backrooms to the courtroom to capture one of America's biggest triumphs in the high-stakes world of antitrust litigation.

Conspiracy

Political Intrigue

Thriller

Hero

Rebellion

Journey

Betrayal

Audiobook details

GenreOther

Length8 hrs 48 mins

Publish dateSep 1, 2012

LanguageEnglish

Table of contents

1Prologue

12Unsealing the Shark

2Part I

13Double Jeopardy

3Opening Statement

14Visa/MasterCard’s Hail Marys

4The Cartel Revealed

15Part III

5Going Private

16Preparing for Trial

6Wal-Mart, The Double-Edged Sword

17Breaking the Deadlock

7The Teams Line Up

18Settlement

8Part II

19Payday

9The Tide Turns

20Closing Statement

10The United States Hitches a Ride

21Addendum

11Five Merchants Become Five Million

22Index

About the author

Constantine, Lloyd

View all by Constantine, Lloyd

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