Germany probes PayPal over potential market dominance

Bloomberg

Germany’s antitrust regulator opened an investigation into PayPal Holdings Inc. over potential obstruction of competitors and restriction of price competition
The Federal Cartel Office is looking at PayPal’s user terms that block business from offering products at lower prices if their customers chose other payment services. The regulator will also look at how the company bans sellers from making it more convenient to use other payment methods than PayPal.
“We will now examine what market power PayPal has and to what extent online retailers are dependent on offering PayPal as a payment method,” Andreas Mundt, the Cartel Office’s head, said. “If businesses are prevented from taking into account the costs of payment methods, new payment methods can fair worse in price and quality competition or not even get into the market.”
Paypal didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.