经济学人精读｜数字商业：美国最终迎来金融科技时代【4】

You might think that the answer is antitrust action against the credit-card firms. America’s competition watchdogs are growling. Last November the Department of Justice sued to block Visa’s $5.3bn purchase of Plaid after Visa’s boss described it as an “insurance policy” to neutralise a “threat to our important US debit business”. The two firms abandoned the deal. On March 19th the Wall Street Journal reported that the justice department had started a new probe over whether Visa is inhibiting merchants from switching to cheaper services. But do not get your hopes up. The courts, which decide most antitrust cases in America, take ages to act and tend to be too lenient . A big antitrust case against American Express in 2017 flopped .

watch · dog noun C

a person or group of people whose job is to protect the rights of people who buy things and to make sure companies do not do anything illegal or harmful 〔保护购买者的权利，确保公司没有从事非法或有害活动的〕监察委员会，监察人员 :

• a consumer watchdog 保护消费者权益的监督员

neu ‧ tral ‧ ize verb [transitive]

to prevent something from having any effect

SYN balance out:

Rising prices neutralize increased wages.

le · ni · ent adjective

not strict in the way you punish someone or in the standard you expect 宽大的，仁慈的 :

• the lenient sentences handed down bysome judges 一些法官作出的宽大判决

• School examiners say that marking hasbecome more lenient in recent years. 学校的阅卷人说近年来评分标准放宽了。

flop verb

if something such as a product, play, or idea flops, it is not successful because people do not like it 〔产品、戏剧、想法等因无人喜欢而〕失败，砸锅