Lighthouse Network Escapes Payment Processor Merger Challenge

Lighthouse Network LLC, a merchant account services company, is free of antitrust claims over a series of vertical mergers involving the acquisition of two restaurant payment interfaces—Shift4 Corp. and Merchant Link LLC—and several point-of-sale card processors, a federal judge in San Diego ruled.

Judge M. James Lorenz dismissed the case for the second time from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, saying Lighthouse didn’t violate antitrust laws by using price incentives to move customers to the compatible systems it consolidated under the Shift4 brand.

So long as Lighthouse isn’t selling services for less than the cost ...