MercadoLibre ramps up fight with Argentine banks over QR payments
MercadoLibre files complaint against MODO for cartel-like behaviour
MODO backed by 36 banks, including Banco Nacion, Santander, BBVA, HSBC
MODO accused Mercado Pago of abusive practices in May
BUENOS AIRES, Aug 26 (Reuters) -Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre MELI.O said on Monday it had filed a complaint with Argentine regulators against digital wallet MODO backed by local banks, alleging cartel-like behaviour and concentration of the market.
MercadoLibre's fintech arm, Mercado Pago, offers its own widely-used digital wallet, with an application to send and receive mobile payments. Tension has been brewing between the fintech platform and local banks over the last year.
Mercado Pago's payment QR codes have become ubiquitous in Argentine stores in recent years, and have helped propel MercadoLibre to become Latin America's largest company by market capitalization, now worth more than $100 billion.
MercadoLibre accused MODO, a digital wallet backed by a group of 36 banks, of operating a monopoly and of committing acts which harmed the fintech industry and its users.
Banks such as Argentina's Banco Nacion, as well as local units of banking giants Santander, BBVA and HSBC, participate in MODO. MODO itself accused Mercado Pago in May this year of using abusive practices to dominate the market.
MODO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"The complaint against the major banks is for prohibited concentration, cartelization and coordinated practices intended to harm the fintech industry and its users," MercadoLibre said in a statement.
"The 36 banks that are part of the MODO wallet form a cartel to avoid competing with each other with their own digital wallets."
MercadoLibre, founded by Argentine billionaire Marcos Galperin, said that its complaint to the regulator "seeks to guarantee a competitive framework for the development of better financial tools."
Earlier this year, MODO filed its own complaint against MercadoLibre, alleging its "abusive practices" had allowed Mercado Pago to scoop up 80% of Argentina's electronic retail payments.
Reporting by Eliana Raszewski; Writing by Kylie Madry, Editing by William Maclean
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
