A new actor joined the lawsuit that was presented by the wallet of the banks grouped in the MODO digital platform against Mercado Libre and the companies associated with Marcos Galperín. This is the Commission of Acquirers of the Argentine Chamber of Credit Cards (Atacyc), which brings together the companies that process transactions with plastics and are between the user and the bank where the money is credited and made a statement of support . He has not yet confirmed whether he will formally join MODO’s lawsuit.
“To achieve true democratization of payment methods, it is essential to establish equitable rules of the game for all members of the ecosystem,” explains the Atacyc statement. The association that brings together companies such as Payway, GetNet and Fiserv stated that “there are still certain market asymmetries caused by regulations that seem to disproportionately benefit certain actors,” alluding to Mercado Libre.
The acquirers particularly focused on the interoperability of QRs and the impact that their implementation has on businesses for greater use of plastics and would be the crux of the original problem between the banks and Mercado Pago. “Although the current regulation requires that all acquirers accept all wallets, the same requirement is not established in the opposite direction,” they say from Atacyc and that benefits Mercado Pago.
The complaint
In the document presented on Monday before the CNDC, MODO denounces anti-competitive behaviors framed in the figures of abuse of dominant position of an exclusionary type that violate Law No. 27,442 on the Defense of Competition (LDC), which correspond to:
● Refusal to incorporate competing digital wallets: Mercado Libre prevents the use of digital wallets competing with Mercado Pago in its marketplace, denying access to those who request to be payment initiators on the platform.
● Refusal to incorporate competing aggregators: MELI does not allow other aggregators and acceptors competing with Mercado Pago to provide collection services in its marketplace, tying merchant sales to their own payment services.
● Obligation to open an exclusive account in Mercado Pago: MELI requires buyers and sellers of the marketplace to have an account in Mercado Pago.
● Refusal to QR interoperability and payment gateway: Mercado Libre prevents competing Mercado Pago wallets from paying with their QR or payment gateway (e-commerce).
● Denial of digital wallet interoperability Mercado Pago: The company prevents Mercado Pago users from initiating card payments using competing acquirers and aggregators.
“It is not possible to ignore the fact that the dominant player in the market prevents with commercial requirements the application of the BCRA rule that imposes the interoperability of credit card payments in QRs. That is anti-competitive behavior in itself. A serious one. Even more so considering that this fact limits the freedom of users to use the wallet of their choice and pay with their cards in any QR, as happens when the physical card is used to pay at POS terminals,” MODO highlighted.
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