WikiLeaks will sue Visa and MasterCard over their continued
refusal to process donations to the whistle-blowing website
following ‘Cablegate’.
In June, Bender von Haller Dragested in Denmark and Reykjavik
Law Firm in Iceland acting on behalf of WikiLeaks and its credit
card processing partner DataCell, warned Visa and MasterCard that
if the financial blockade is not removed they will be litigated in
Denmark and a request for prosecution will be filed with the
European Union Commission.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Visa Europe, MasterCard Europe, and Teller (a Danish company
licensed to process transactions on behalf of the card companies)
are the subjects of the complaint on the grounds they are “engaging
in an unlawful, US influenced, financial blockade” to
WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks argues the co-ordinated action of Visa and MasterCard
on 7 December 2010 to block all credit card transactions to
WikiLeaks and DataCell constituted a serious violation of the
Competition Rules of the EU – specifically Article 101(1) and
102.
While Teller has acknowledged it is ready to reinstate the
services as due diligence, Visa and MasterCard has ordered the
processor to keep the payment services closed. Neither Visa nor
MasterCard have answered WikiLeaks’ demands or shown willingness to
negotiate a settlement.
The penalty for infringing the competition rules of the EU can
amount to 10% of the turnover of the companies involved.
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By GlobalDataOn 28 June, MasterCard once again felt the full force of the
power of WikiLeaks’ ‘hacktivists’ as its website suffered a protest
outage for two hours. Ibom Hactivist, a member of hacking group
‘Anonymous’ took credit for the attack. He tweeted: “MasterCard.com
DOWN!!!, thats what you get when you mess with @wikileaks
@Anon_Central and the enter community of lulz loving individuals
:D”.
WikiLeaks says there is no justification for the continued
suspension of payments as it has not been found to be engaged in
any illegal activity. In the only formal US review to occur, the US
Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy C. Geitner, refused to add
WikiLeaks to the US financial embargo list, saying there was no
legal justification to do so.
