The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has initiated a preliminary inquiry on Visa and Mastercard for possibly prohibiting merchants from using other debit networks, Bloomberg Law reported on Wednesday, November 13.
The regulator is looking into whether Visa, Mastercard, and other large debit card issuers are blocking retailers from routing card transactions over alternative networks such as Pulse, NYCE, and Star, the Bloomberg report stated.
The FTC has been reaching out to large merchants and their trade groups over the issue, the report added. The inquiry could spell fresh regulatory trouble for the world’s two largest payments processors which settled a protracted European Union antitrust probe in April this year over card fees.
Full Content: Bloomberg
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