In nFinanSe Inc. v. Interactive Communications International Inc., Northern District of Georgia Judge Amy Totenberg dismissed the plaintiff’s claim that the defendant violated the antitrust laws by requiring a set fee to reload payment cards used in the defendant’s network. The plaintiff, a seller of prepaid credit cards, claimed that the defendant, a distributor of the cards, violated the Sherman Act by requiring card sellers to charge a set reload fee of $3.95, a dollar more than the plaintiff had charged.
The court held that the fee restriction was not a naked restraint of trade with no purpose other than restricting competition. On the contrary, the defendant’s “reload network,” according to Judge Totenberg, “creates a more centralized and efficient reload process for consumers and retailers and in which upstream card providers participate.”