Türkiye’s competitors watchdog on Friday introduced it had launched an investigation into world card cost giants Mastercard and Visa to find out whether or not their scheme guidelines restricted Turkish cost establishments from servicing retailers based mostly overseas.
The Competition Authority (RK) stated home cost service suppliers have been capable of supply companies to customers wishing to make funds to retailers based mostly overseas via bilateral agreements established with overseas entities.
“Under these bilateral agreements, cross-border payment transactions are localized and can be carried out without being subject to Mastercard or Visa’s foreign transaction fees,” the board stated.
Initial findings from on-site inspections recommend that Mastercard and Visa could also be obstructing the operations of cost service suppliers engaged in such bilateral agreements, claiming these actions violate their self-defined scheme guidelines, and could also be utilizing varied strategies, resembling imposing sanctions on banks, to take action, it famous.
The investigation will study whether or not the businesses have prevented the usage of their card/POS infrastructure by foreign-based retailers and whether or not they have taken steps to exclude various cost options from the market, the authority famous.
The board launched a separate investigation in November final 12 months to look at whether or not Mastercard and Visa’s low cost and incentive constructions created de facto exclusivity with card-issuing banks in Türkiye, doubtlessly stifling competitors from rival networks.
In 2015, Mastercard was fined by for practices associated to its card cost techniques.
Source: www.dailysabah.com