MercadoLibre Slams Argentine Banks for ‘Cartel’ Tactics (1)

MercadoLibre Inc. accused Argentine banks Monday of “illegally concentrating” under one payments platform as an anti-competitive tactic against the company’s fintech arm.

Latin America’s largest company by market valuation filed a legal complaint before Argentina’s National Commission in Defense of Competition after banks — under their shared platform MODO — filed their own legal complaint in May alleging similar anti-competitive strategies by the firm’s Mercado Pago unit.

While Mercado Pago claims 80% of all deposits in Argentina’s financial system are held by the 36 banks backing MODO, the banks says Mercado Pago is home to 80% of all e-commerce ...