Payment systems Visa and Mastercard sent letters to Wildberries acquiring banks demanding to investigate the situation with commissions when paying for goods on the marketplace using foreign payment systems. This is stated in the letters of payment systems, which Vedomosti got acquainted with. The authenticity of the letters was confirmed by a source in one of the banks and a source close to the marketplace.
The letter from Visa says that if the acquiring bank does not eliminate the “violation” by August 31, the payment system will impose a $ 25,000 fine on it. The amount will increase every month until the violation is eliminated. A source in one of the banks that received the letter said that Mastercard, which demanded to provide an answer by August 25, threatened with fines ranging from $ 20,000 to $ 100,000. Earlier Wildberries reported about letters to banks “with threats of penalties”.
In a letter to banks, Mastercard said that it had checked and found violations. “We have reason to believe that the seller mentioned above (Wildberries. – Ed.) Applies a surcharge of 2% to Mastercard transactions,” the letter says. The press service of Mastercard told Vedomosti that the company is “in a normal working dialogue with partners.” “We act in accordance with our rules and procedures and do not comment on the details of the relationship with clients,” said a company representative. A Visa spokesman declined to comment.
A source familiar with the situation told Vedomosti that the largest acquiring banks for Wildberries are Sberbank, Alfa-Bank, Tinkoff-Bank, Russian Standard and others. Vedomosti sent inquiries to the above-mentioned credit institutions … Sberbank declined to comment.
Earlier today, Wildberries announced the pressure of foreign payment systems on Russian banks because of the marketplace’s policy of discounts when paying for orders with Mir cards, through SberPay or the Fast Payment System (FPS).
Since August 16, Wildberries have reduced prices for goods when paying using Russian payment systems – Mir, SBP and SberPay. The difference in the cost of goods is achieved due to significantly lower fees for processing transactions by domestic payment systems, while the fees of international payment systems reach 2%. Therefore, by choosing Mir, SBP or SberPay when paying for an order, Russians can save 2% on purchases, Wildberries explained.
After that, representatives of Mastercard and Visa criticized the new payment policy of Wildberries. The company “has consistently opposed this practice, as it is convinced that such actions have a negative impact not only on consumers, but also on the business itself,” said a Visa spokesman. The head of Mastercard in Russia, Alexei Malinovsky, said that the company is analyzing the situation with the introduction of a separate commission by the largest Russian marketplace Wildberries for paying for purchases using foreign payment systems and is concerned about possible discrimination against “millions of cardholders”.
The representative of the marketplace responded to the statements, saying that Wildberries “repeatedly told the representatives of Western payment systems that their commissions are too high for the market and exceed the tariffs of domestic systems, but their position has not changed.”
The FAS, in response to a request from Vedomosti, stated that the law on the protection of competition “contains a ban on the creation of discriminatory conditions only for dominant economic entities.” At the same time, the antimonopoly regulator did not yet have data “indicating that the market position of Wildberries is dominant.”
Rospotrebnadzor also saw no violations in the new Wildberries policy. Marketplaces have the right to provide a discount to customers when paying with a certain payment instrument, while consumer rights are not violated, the department emphasized.
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