The complaint filed Tuesday says Visa penalizes merchants and banks who don’t use Visa’s own payment processing technology to process debit transactions, even though alternatives exist.

The US Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing Visa of illegally monopolizing the debit card market.

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday sued Visa, the world’s biggest payments network, saying it propped up an illegal monopoly over debit payments by imposing “exclusionary” agreements on partners and smothering upstart firms.

The Justice Department sued Visa today, accusing the giant payments company of seeking to monopolize the debit card business.

According to the DOJ's complaint, 60% of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa’s debit network, allowing it to charge over $7 billion in fees each year for processing those transactions.

The financial giant, which processes the majority of debit card spending in the United States, unfairly imposed fees on merchants and deterred rivals, the Justice Department said.

The US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit arguing Visa engaged in anticompetitive behavior related to its debit card business.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Visa on Tuesday, alleging the financial services giant used its clout to maintain a monopoly over the U.S. debit card market.