SAN FRANCISCO— A federal judge in California has again dismissed a consumer antitrust challenge to Capital One’s completed $35-billion acquisition of Discover, ruling that credit card users still have not plausibly shown they were harmed by the merger—but giving them one final chance to amend their complaint.
Law360 reported U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam tossed the reworked case while allowing a last attempt to replead.
The suit, filed in the Northern District of California as Fry et al. v. Capital One Financial Corp., et al., was brought by cardholders seeking to unwind the deal on antitrust grounds, arguing the combination would hurt consumers. Public court records show the case was filed April 30, 2025, and that plaintiffs later submitted a First Amended Complaint explicitly seeking “Complete Divestiture of Discover Financial Services, Inc. from Capital One Financial, Inc.” after an earlier dismissal.
The ruling is the latest legal win for Capital One in a transaction that already cleared regulators and closed last year. The Federal Reserve and OCC approved the acquisition on April 18, 2025, and Capital One completed the Discover purchase on May 18, 2025, creating one of the country’s largest card issuers and giving Capital One control of Discover’s payments network.
For now, the merger remains fully intact, and the consumers’ challenge appears on increasingly narrow footing. Still, the court’s decision to allow one final amendment means the plaintiffs are not yet out of moves, leaving a small opening for one more attempt to argue that the completed Capital One-Discover tie-up should be revisited, Law360 said.