Judge Gleason, the Southern District of NY judge overseeing the multi-district Visa/MasterCard antitrust litigation disagreed with his magistrate and dismissed a claim by the merchant plaintiffs that MasterCard’s IPO unlawfully lessened competition under Section 7 of the Clayton Act. The complaint alleged that the IPO was a sham to create the appearance that MasterCard was a single entity that could set interchange fees independently from its member banks. In reality, the merchants claimed, the banks would continue to operate together to control the fee. Judge Gleason held that since the new board of directors would consist of a majority of indepenent directors, as opposed to the current majority of executives from the member banks, the IPO could not lessen competition. The dismissal was without prejudice.