American Express said it sued Visa International and MasterCard International for imposing rules, later overturned by the courts, that barred thousands of banks from issuing its credit card.

The suit, which also names eight banks as defendants, seeks billions of dollars in damages, according to a statement by New York-based American Express, the no. 4 U.S. credit card issuer. Among the banks cited are JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., and, a unit of Household International Inc., all of which were members of Visa’s or MasterCard’s board.

The antitrust suit filed in New York follows court decisions striking down Visa and MasterCard rules which blocked 20,000 banks and other financial institutions that issued their cards from also distributing American Express cards.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to hear appeals from San Francisco-based Visa and Master-Card, which is headquartered in Purchase, N.Y.

“The federal courts have already found that Visa and MasterCard broke the law,” American Express’s chairman, Kenneth Chenault, said in the statement. “The card associations functioned as a cartel. Banks who had expressed an interest in working with us were stopped before they could start.”

A MasterCard spokeswoman, Sharon Gamsin, said in an interview that American Express will face “significant obstacles that the government didn’t face.” She said the Justice Department had to show that American consumers were injured by the rules; American Express must show specifically how it was injured, Ms. Gamsin said.

“It is no way a slam dunk,” she said.

MasterCard General Counsel Noah J. Hanft said in a statement that American Express “can no longer hide in the shadow of the government.

“This lawsuit will showcase what American Express planned to do from the beginning – recruit the affluent, high-spend customers of select banks by enticing those banks with their higher cardholder and merchant fees, a cost which will be borne by consumers and merchants across the country,” Mr. Hanft said. “This is entirely contrary to the very purpose of the antitrust laws.”

He said American Express “has done nothing but prosper in the United States during the years when Master-Card’s policy was in effect, clearly demonstrating that Amex is not a company that has suffered any harm.”

The senior vice president of Visa USA, Daniel Tarman, said in a statement that “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.”

Mr. Tarman added, “This litigation will not remedy the fact that American Express doesn’t have an access problem, they have a product problem.”

JPMorgan spokesman Joe Evangelisti and Bank of America spokeswoman Shirley Norton declined to comment. Richard Lindsay, a spokesman for HSBC Holdings Plc, which owns Household International, didn’t have an immediate comment.

David Boies, the lawyer who assisted the American government’s antitrust litigation against Microsoft Corp., will serve as lead attorney for American Express.

Mr. Boies said the primary issue facing the court will be the amount of damages American Express suffered because of the Visa and MasterCard rules. Under federal law, antitrust damages may be tripled.

Mr. Boies said the figure could amount to “many billions of dollars.”

Mr. Boies said in a conference call with reporters that American Express weighed a variety of factors to determine which banks to sue, including whether a bank participated in drafting the Visa and MasterCard rules, as well as whether it benefited significantly from them, or is now in discussions with American Express to issue credit cards.

He declined to elaborate about specific banks.

“Prior to bringing this litigation, we have engaged in discussions with a number of institutions,” he said. “Those conversations have not stopped.”

Mr. Boies also assailed the decision by Visa and MasterCard to appeal the October 2001 ruling by U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones which struck down the barrier to member banks that might have wanted to issue American Express cards.

“At each stage Visa and MasterCard have sought to defend their actions,” he said.

The Supreme Court on October 4 let stand lower court rulings that Visa and MasterCard, the two largest issuers, violated antitrust law by barring members of their bank-owned associations from distributing competing cards.

Other banks named in yesterday’s suit are Providian National Bank, Capital One Financial Corp., USAA Federal Savings Bank, and U.S. Bancorp,. Steve Dale, a U.S. Bancorp spokesman, and Providian spokesman Alan Elias declined to comment. Calls to Capital One and USAA weren’t immediately returned.

Visa accounted for 42% of the $678 billion in U.S. credit-card purchases in the first half of 2004, MasterCard 30% and American Express 21%, according to the Nilson Report. The Discover Card accounted for 5%.