PayPal Defeats Proposed Class Action Over Anti-Steering Claims

PayPal Holdings Inc. convinced a federal judge to dismiss a suit accusing it of enforcing anticompetitive agreements with merchants that prevent them from offering price discounts to consumers who use non-PayPal means of payment.

Judge Jeffrey S. White of the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Aug. 23 granted PayPal’s motion to dismiss the case with leave to amend, saying the plaintiffs’ claims are “too indirect and speculative to maintain antitrust standing.”

The ruling hands a win to PayPal, the e-commerce payments platform that handles billions of transactions annually. The company last month boosted its forecast ...