Stop Capital One-Discover from becoming one credit card behemoth!
Petition to the Department of Justice Antitrust Division:
We urge you to stop Capital One's acquisition of Discover in order to protect consumers from higher credit card fees and costs, protect the stability of the financial system, and protect market competition.
When corporations get bigger and bigger, they use their power to cut corners, raise costs for consumers, make customer service worse, shut down locations, and squeeze out small businesses even more than before. That will be no different if the $35.3 billion Capital One-Discover merger goes through — in fact it will be worse because bank consolidation like this threatens the stability of our financial system.
Capital One’s credit card rates are already some of the highest in the country1 — why would those rates go down for consumers when bank executives at Capital One have even more control over the market? They won’t.
And the bank’s infamous history of predatory lending practices2 won’t get any better. Capital One will simply have more power to keep up their bad practices or make them even worse. The government can’t allow Capital One to get even bigger and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division is the regulator who can stop this dangerous bank merger from going through.
Sign the petition: The DOJ Antitrust Division must stop the Capital One-Discover $35.3 billion credit card merger.
As Senator Warren put it, “The data shows that the biggest credit card companies force customers to pay significantly higher interest rates than smaller banks — amounting to as much as $500 a year in added costs for consumers. Making Capital One even bigger will just be more money out of our pockets.”3
We have federal antitrust laws to protect competition and to protect consumers from worse products for higher prices. We also have regulations that say this type of merger must benefit not just the financial institutions, but also consumers. How can such a credit card behemoth that would raise prices benefit consumers? It won’t, and the DOJ must stop Capital One-Discover.
Urge the DOJ to uphold antitrust laws to stop the Capital One-Discover merger.
Sources:
- Common Dreams, "Warren Calls On Regulators to 'Immediately' Block Capital One-Discover Merger," February 20, 2024.
- Ibid.
- Senator Elizabeth Warren on Twitter, “The data shows that the biggest credit card companies force customers to pay significantly higher interest rates...” March 27, 2024.