Wildberries accused Mastercard and Visa of illegal pressure on Russian banks

The press service of Wildberries, the largest Russian online retailer, once again reacted to the scandal with the Mastercard and Visa payment systems.

Now Wildberries are accusing foreign payment systems of “illegal pressure on Russian banks.” Wildberries emphasize:

We became aware of the receipt of official letters from foreign payment systems to Russian banks with threats of penalties. We view these incidents as attempts to put pressure on domestic financial organizations, to restrict their independent work. ”

The largest Russian online retailer notes:

We also consider such intimidation to be a manifestation of unfair competition on the part of foreign payment systems and an attempt to take advantage of our dominant position in the Russian market. ”

Wildberries also emphasize that in foreign countries such commissions are much lower and this is an obvious fact of discrimination against Russian business, in particular, small and medium-sized businesses, which most of all suffer from inflated tariffs. The company concludes:

The thought was repeatedly heard among experts that Western payment systems, in fact, have established a new “tax” for Russians, since their similar tariffs in Europe, the USA and Asia are several times lower than domestic ones. At a minimum, buyers have the right to know about the amount of this “rent” and that they really have a choice not to pay it. ”

We will remind, the other day Wildberries announced a “reduction in prices for goods when paying through Russian payment systems.” However, when trying to place an order, users saw warnings about “2% commission for payments with Mastercard and Visa cards” in mobile applications and the web version of the store, as well as a commission highlighted in a separate line in addition to the cost of goods on the checkout page.

In response, representatives of Mastercard and Visa expressed concern about the Wildberries’ decision and decided to investigate the situation. In response, Wildberries said that it was ready to negotiate, and also stressed that accusations of discrimination against users have no basis, since the tariffs are set by Mastercard and Visa themselves.

Rospotrebnadzor said for its part that in the situation with Wildberries, consumer rights are not violated and marketplaces have the right to provide a discount to buyers when paying with a certain payment instrument.