EU regulators okay with conditions on Mastercard's Scandinavian e-pay deal

[BRUSSELS] EU antitrust regulators on Monday cleared Mastercard's bid to buy part of Scandinavian payments group Nets after the companies agreed to sell a Nets technology to a rival to boost competition in the market.

US payments group Mastercard last year announced the proposed acquisition of three divisions of Nets, which cover corporate clearing, instant payments and e-billing, for about for about US$3.4 billion.

It offered concessions last month after the European Commission voiced concerns about the impact of the deal in account-to-account core infrastructure services, where payments are processed directly from one bank account to another without the need for a card.

"Mastercard and Nets offered to transfer to a suitable purchaser a global license to distribute, supply, sell, develop, modify, upgrade or otherwise use Nets' Realtime 24/7 technology," the EU competition enforcer said in a statement.

REUTERS