Mastercard Ordered by FTC to Help Rivals Route Transactions
- Agency says card companies use technology to stymie rivals
- Order is culmination of years-long probe into tokenization
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The Federal Trade Commission ordered Mastercard Inc. to start providing its competitors with customer account information they need to process debit payments, a move that could cut costs for merchants.
The enforcement action, approved in a 4-0 vote, is the culmination of a years-long investigation focused on Mastercard and Visa Inc.’s policies prohibiting merchants from routing card transactions over alternative debit networks. At issue is whether the payment giants were violating part of the Dodd-Frank Act, which required banks to enable at least two unaffiliated networks on every debit card.