Banks denounce Mercado Pago for abuse of dominant position in Argentina

This Monday, Argentine banks denounced Mercado Pago, the virtual wallet of the Latin American online shopping giant Free marketby “anti-competitive maneuvers” for preventing its QR charging code from accepting payments from credit cards hosted in other digital wallets, among other actions, the regulatory authority confirmed.

The complaint was filed with the National Commission for the Defense of Competition (CNDC) by the company Modo, a virtual wallet that brings together the main banks operating in Argentina.

In it, it indicates that Mercado Pago fails to comply with the regulations issued by the Central Bank (BCRA) last week on the interoperability of QR codes for credit card payments.

Currently, businesses that display a Mercado Pago QR code allow a person who has their credit or debit card loaded in this application to pay a bill with their phone. He BCRA decided that this QR would allow other virtual wallets, such as Modo, to process such transactions.

“The QR codes displayed by businesses to charge with credit cards must allow customers to make payments with any digital wallet (bank or payment service provider), regardless of whether there is a brand match with the QR.“, he ordered BCRA.

Modo demanded in his writing that this provision of the BCRA.

“The abusive conduct of Mercado Libre, detailed in the complaint, generates negative effects for the market, disproportionately maximizing its profits at the expense of contracting the value offer for users due to the lack of competition.“, he detailed to the news portal Infobae Santiago Eraso Lomáquizdirector of legal, compliance and public affairs at Modo.

In addition, the banks also claim that Free market does not accept payments in your “marketplace”, shopping website, with wallets other than Mercado Pago and repudiate the fact that an account must be opened in the wallet to be able to buy or sell on the site.

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