Five payment providers, including Mastercard, have been fined a total of 33 million pounds ($45.01 million) by the UK payments regulator for cartel behavior involving prepaid cards supplied to vulnerable persons on welfare support.
Mastercard was fined the most, 31.56 million pounds ($43.04 million). Allpay, Advanced Payment Solution, Prepaid Financial Services, and Sulion were among the other companies penalized.
According to the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), the companies violated competition law by agreeing not to compete or recruit each other’s customers on pre-paid cards used by local governments to disburse welfare payments to the poor.
According to the regulator, the cartel meant that recipients of the cards, such as the homeless, domestic violence victims, and asylum seekers, may have missed out on cheaper or better products.
The PSR had earlier stated in March of last year that preliminary results would result in fines for the five corporations. find out more It said on Tuesday that the probe was complete.
The Payment Systems Regulator’s Managing Director, Chris Hemsley, stated, “This inquiry and the large fines we have issued send a clear message that the PSR has zero-tolerance for cartel behavior.”
“We apologize that the standards expected of us were not met in this instance due to the acts of two former employees,” Mastercard stated.
During the course of the investigation, all of the parties settled and admitted to infringing the law, according to the regulator.
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