Ohio v. American Express Co.
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 25, 2018 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- June 25, 2018
- Term
- October Term 2017
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2017 1 Syllabus NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U.S. 321 , 337. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus OHIO ET AL. v. AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT No. 16–1454. Argued February 26, 2018—Decided June 25, 2018 Respondent credit-card companies American Express Company and American Express Travel Related Services Company (collectively, Amex) operate what economists call a “two-sided platform,” providing services to two different groups (cardholders and merchants) who de- pend on the platform to intermediate between them. Because the in- teraction between the two groups is a transaction, credit-card net- works are a special type of two-sided platform known as a “transaction” platform. The key feature of transaction platforms is that they cannot make a sale to one side of the platform without sim- ultaneously making a sale to the other. Unlike traditional markets, two-sided platforms exhibit “indirect network effects,” which exist where the value of the platform to…
Excerpt of a 101,836-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.