Priceless: The Case that Brought Down the Visa/MasterCard Bank Cartel by Lloyd Constantine

Priceless: The Case that Brought Down the Visa/MasterCard Bank Cartel by Lloyd Constantine is an intriguing insight into price fixing and antitrust cases

My Book Review Rating: 3 stars an insightful tale lacking a literary edge

As a Compliance Manager for a UK bank I was keen to read this offering from Lloyd Constantine promising an inside look into the ground-breaking legal battle that blew the lid off the Mastercard Visa cartel and changed the face of the US debit card industry.

The facts of the case certainly made for an interesting read as big brand names including Wal-Mart, The Limited and Safeway pitted their wits against the credit card giants.

It’s billed as a ‘riveting story’ which to be fair it really should have been, unfortunately I just couldn’t gel with the writing style. I feel that the real impact of this story has been somehow lost in the very factual writing style of lawyer Constantine, and I can’t help feeling that it would have reached a whole different audience if it had been ghost written by someone else. Instead it will probably be thoroughly enjoyed by antitrust students who might one day dream of taking on a case even half the size of this record breaking campaign.

If you’re in the legal field and want an inside view into the biggest antitrust case in American history then you should definitely read this book, if you’re not then I’d give it a miss.