Monday, February 4, 2013

Australian Regulator Sues Visa For Noncompetitive Practices

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is suing Visa in the Federal Court of New South Wales.Chairman Rod Sims says it is concerned that Visa sought to stop the growth of competing dynamic currency conversion services and,as a result,limit the choices available to consumers.
Action is being taken against VISA AP(Australia),VISA Inc,VISA USA Inc,and VISA Worldwide Pty Ltd.The ACCC is seeking penalties against Visa and declarations that all the companies took advantage of its substantial degrees of market power in the international payment card network.
Travelers to Australia using a Visa payment card did not get to choose who does their currency conversion when withdrawing cash from an ATM.They were denied the ability to know the cost of the transaction in their own currency at the time the transaction was made.As well,Australian retailers were denied the opportunity to share in the revenue from the process of currency conversion at new merchant outlets.
Visa is alleged to have banned alternative currency conversion services at Australian ATMs since late 2007;and since April 2010,Australian retailers could use Visa's payment system or accept Visa credit cards only if they agreed to use Visa's currency conversion service.
Visa Inc(V)

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