02/07/2011
By Scott Thompson
WikiLeaks is to sue MasterCard and Visa for blocking donations to the organisation. Wikileaks' credit card processing partner, Datacell, is also involved in the lawsuit.
In a statement, the organisation accused MasterCard and Visa of "engaging in an unlawful, US influenced, financial blockade." Teller (a Danish company licensed to process transactions on behalf of the card companies) is also a subject of the complaint.
The statement said: "It was pointed out to these companies that their co-ordinated action on 7 December last year to block all credit card transactions to WikiLeaks and DataCell constituted a serious violation of the Competition Rules of the EU (Article 101(1) and 102). Furthermore, that the actions of these companies have violated Danish merchant laws when they terminated the payment services and by refused to reinstate them."
It added: "Teller has acknowledged that it is ready to reinstate the services as due diligence by the company has not found any violations by DataCell, but, despite this, the company has been ordered by Visa and MasterCard to keep the payment services closed. Visa and MasterCard (which have 70 and 25 per cent market share in Europe respectively) have not answered the demands or shown willingness to negotiate a settlement."
"In light of this outcome DataCell and WikiLeaks will instruct their international legal team to take actions against these companies in the coming days as outlined above. Further actions in other jurisdictions will follow," the statement concluded.
