The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Nets’ account-to-account payment business by Mastercard.
The decision is conditional on the transfer of a license for Nets’ “Realtime 24/7” technology for account-to-account core infrastructure services as well as of the relevant personnel and other assets.
Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, responsible for competition policy, said, “Companies and citizens seek competitive and innovative payment solutions for their banking transactions. This merger, as originally notified, would have significantly reduced competition in the market for account-to-account core infrastructure services and undermined the development of new real-time payment solutions, which are becoming increasingly important. Today’s decision ensures that effective competition is preserved and facilitates the emergence of a new provider of real-time payment infrastructure services in the European Economic Area.”
The Commission’s investigation focused on the markets for the provision of account-to-account core infrastructure services “A2A CIS” and account-to-account payment services “A2A payment services,” where the activities of the Mastercard and the target business mainly overlap in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Full Content: Europa
Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.
