Unfair Business Practices

[ablackburn]

I read an article in the paper today, about Discover Card suing Visa and MC. Here is the opening pragraph of a news article:

"Discover Financial Services, a business unit of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MWD), today filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York seeking damages from Visa and MasterCard as compensation for harm caused by anticompetitive business practices of the two associations. The lawsuit was filed shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeal by the associations of a lower court ruling that had revoked the exclusionary policies of Visa and MasterCard."

I am a real estate appraiser. I own a company that does QC reviews on other appraiser's work.

A lender that owns 1 in 6 mortgages throughout the nation, essentially the 800 lb gorilla in the lending industry has anti competitive practices that they have put in place, to put thier competition at a competitive dis-advantage.

As an example, if Loan Company A decides to sell a loan to the 800 lb gorilla, they are incentivised to use a company the 800 lb gorilla owns, to do the appraisal review. If Loan Company A uses the 800 lb gorilla's appraisal company for the QC review, they only have to have a minimal cost product. If Loan Company A decides they want to use my company or any other company for the QC review, the 800 lb gorilla requires a more expensive, different type of product.

This essentially takes all competition out of the game. It is an anti-competitive business practice. I saw parallels in my situation with the Discover Card lawsuit.

I'm not an attorney, obviously, but to me, it seems there has to be some sort of law that is being broken here.

I would appreciate any feedback.

[ablackburn]

Are there any attorneys here that can answer my question?

[davidp10]

I'm not a business attorney but the San Diego attorneys at Navigato and Battin have given me great advice in the past. Hope this helps!