CADE refused to consider Mastercard’s consultation

The Tribunal of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense - CADE, refused to consider the consultation of MasterCard Brasil Soluções de Pagamento Ltda on its session of 14 October 2015. The company requested CADE’s guidance about the legality of its “Information Request Clause” foreseen in its “Payment Arrangements Regulation”.

According to CADE, the MasterCard request did not fulfill the prerequisites foreseen in the Resolution 12/2015 which regulates the consultation within the authority.
MasterCard did not clarify the exact object under consultation, following the resolution determination to describe exhaustively and completely the relevant facts, the Reporting Commissioner Paulo Burnier has explained.

Furthermore, CADE decided that the case demands an investigative proceeding for the delimitation of any competition concerns. The consultation, by its reduced scope, is not the appropriated tool for it. “The analysis of the competition issue showed it needs further examination of the markets which certifiers and facilitators act at. The markets related to the credit card payment systems and the classification of its agents are much more complex than the picture presented by the company”, completed the reporting commissioner.

Administrative Procedure

The conduct related to the transfer of information about the commercial establishments - clients of the facilitators – to the certifiers through a payment tool was also analyzed by CADE on the Administrative Procedure nº 08012.004089/2009-01. On that procedure, a Cease and Desist Term (TCC in its Portuguese acronym) was signed with Redecard - which is a certifier - that, among other measures, the party was forbidden to request the clients list of the facilitators.