Visa’s heft in the market has allowed it to pressure merchants into accepting its cards to avoid steep costs on billions of dollars of transactions, the DOJ says.

This move follows Discover Financial Services' unit, Pulse Network, settling a lawsuit in Texas earlier this year, which accused Visa of obstructing competition in the multibillion-dollar debit card network services market, causing merchants to pay higher fees.

The Justice Department sued Visa on Tuesday for antitrust violations, alleging the company used illegal tactics to maintain a monopoly in debit-card payments. Read more here:

The Justice Department sued Visa on Tuesday, accusing the credit card company of illegally maintaining a monopoly over the debit market. The DOJ argues that Visa has limited competition by entering into exclusive agreements with merchants and banks that force most or all of their transactions to run on Visa’s network.

Visa is in the antitrust crosshairs. The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit accusing the payments giant of illegally maintaining a monopoly.

The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market

The imposed a “web of exclusionary agreements” that penalize merchants who use alternative payment processors, the Justice Department said.