[JURIST] American Express announced Monday that it is suing fellow credit card giants Visa and MasterCard, along with eight banks, alleging anticompetitive practices which prevented American Express from issuing credit cards through US banks. American Express said that it would seek damages "in the billions of dollars." In October, the Supreme Court denied hearing an appeal from the Second Circuit which ruled in United States v. Visa [PDF] that Visa and MasterCard were required to allow their member banks to issue credit cards of competitors. Discover Financial Services filed an antitrust suit against Visa and MasterCard last month. AP has more.

2:25 PM ET - Visa Senior Vice-President Daniel Tarman has issued this video statement on the American Express suit. Excerpt:

Visa will vigorously fight this lawsuit because American Express already got what it wanted from the court---the ability to issue its products through Visa members. It’s time for American Express to stop looking to the courts to solve its problems and compete in the marketplace instead. Amex persuaded the courts that it should be able to issue its products through banks, even though consumers and merchants already had unfettered access to American Express products