Biden appointed noted anti-monopoly advocate Lina Khan to head the FCC, and she has made aggressive moves against anticompetitive behavior. The latest case is getting Mastercard not to block competing payment networks.
While I have been generally unimpressed with Joe Biden's priorities, I have been rather impressed the the people that he has hired, except, of course Pete Buttigieg:
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an order Friday requiring Mastercard to not block competing debit payment networks from having the customer data they need to process payments.
The FTC said in a release on Friday that Mastercard must provide customer account information to competing networks to let them process debit payments, stating that it violated provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
The Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act requires banks to allow at least two unaffiliated networks on every debit card to give merchants a choice of which network to use for a debit transaction. It also prohibits payment card networks from stopping merchants from using other networks.
But the FTC alleges that Mastercard has been using illegal business tactics to require merchants to route debit card payments through its network.
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The release states that Mastercard used its own control over a process called tokenization to stop the use of competing networks. Tokenization is a process through which a cardholder’s primary account number is replaced with a different number to protect the account number during certain stages of a debit transaction, according to the FTC.
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The FTC said in its release that it voted 4-0 to issue its complaint and accept a consent agreement, and it will publish a description of the agreement soon. The agreement will be subject to public comment, and then the FTC will decide whether to make the agreement final.
It's nice to see antitrust regulators doing their job.
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