For The Moment, Visa And MasterCard Reopen Payments To WikiLeaks

[cory777]

Source: Forbes

Would-be WikiLeaks donors who’ve been waiting six months to make credit card contributions to their favorite secret-spilling group should seize the chance. In a move that may be a response to legal pressure from the group or may yet be a slip-up, Visa and MasterCard are again allowing payments to WikiLeaks through its Icelandic payment gateway DataCell.

Late last week, WikiLeaks and DataCell gave me a copy of a legal complaint the group had planned to file Thursday with the European Union Commission, accusing the card companies and their Danish payment processor Teller of abusing their market positions by cutting off WikiLeaks’ financial sources.

Neither Visa nor MasterCard has responded to that threat, and even now a Visa spokesperson merely tells me that the company is “looking into the situation.”

Update: The spokesperson now adds: “We have not reinstated Datacell and are looking into how transactions are being made.

Read more: http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/07/07/for-the-moment-visa-and-mastercard-re-open-payments-to-wikileaks/

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Breaking Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com/

[struggle4progress]

1. Further links:

... DataCell claims MasterCard and Visa have caved and will now accept, through them, WikiLeaks donations ...
The WikiLeaks News & Views Blog for Friday, July 8
Greg Mitchell
July 7, 2011
http://www.thenation.com/blog/161862/wikileaks-news-views-blog-friday-july-8

... In a letter dated 9th June 2011, DataCell informed Visa/Mastercard and Teller of the intention to file a complaint to the EU Commission regarding VISA's and Mastercard's violation of EU Competition regulation and to initiate a law suit in Denmark to claim damages. We demanded furthermore that the payment gateway was reinstated immediately. This is now almost exactly one month ago ...
Credit card donation to WikiLeaks is now accepted again
7. Jul 2011
http://www.datacell.com/news/2011-07-07/credit_card_donation_to_wikileaks_is_now_accepted_again/

... Andreas Fink, the chief executive of Icelandic payment processor DataCell, told The Associated Press that Visa and MasterCard were again processing payments to WikiLeaks after a seven-month hiatus. Fink claimed the move as a tacit admission of guilt from the credit card companies, but it may well have been accidental. Visa Europe spokesman Simon Kleine told AP that processing the payments was "not something that we've sanctioned" and that the company was investigating. An email and phone calls seeking comment from MasterCard were not immediately returned ...
RAPHAEL SATTER
Last updated 11:00 08/07/2011
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/5255365/WikiLeaks-getting-donations-but-is-it-a-mistake

... DataCell is using an alternative-payment gateway to process money sent through MasterCard, the world’s second-largest payments network, and Visa Europe, which runs the largest card network in the European Union, Reykjavik, Iceland-based DataCell said in a statement today. “DataCell is happy to report that we are now able again to process donations to WikiLeaks,” the company said. “We choose to interpret this as that Visa and MasterCard has in fact given in to our demand” to reinstate the service ... Amanda Kamin, a spokeswoman for London-based Visa Europe, denied that the firm had changed its policy on WikiLeaks donations. “We have not reinstated DataCell and are looking into how transactions are being made,” Kamin said in an e- mailed statement. James Issokson, a New York-based spokesman for MasterCard, didn’t return e-mails or phone calls seeking comment ...
WikiLeaks’s Partner Says Visa, MasterCard Lift Payment Block
By Aoife White and Donal Griffin
Thu Jul 07 22:35:05 GMT 2011
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-07/wikileaks-s-partner-says-visa-mastercard-lift-payment-block-1-.html

Contrary to widely-circulated reports in the Associated Press and Forbes, Visa did not lift its financial blockade on WikiLeaks, a Visa spokesperson tells The Atlantic Wire ... The AP and Forbes were careful to note that neither MasterCard nor Visa had confirmed the report. Now, Visa is making it clear: "We have not reinstated DataCell and are looking into how transactions are being made" ...
Visa Says It's Still Not Processing Transactions for WikiLeaks
John Hudson Jul 07, 2011
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/07/visa-says-its-still-not-processing-transactions-wikileaks/39705/

... REYKJAVIK: WikiLeaks is delaying its complaint to the European Commission against credit card giants Visa and MasterCard in the hopes of reaching an out-of-court deal, the website's lawyer said Thursday. "Visa asked for a delay to react to our demands," Reykjavik-based Svein Andri Sveinsson told AFP. "They said they would come back to us Friday... If nothing changes, we will file the complaint after the weekend. We just have the courtesy to not file a complaint when they requested a delay," he explained. The suit was initially set to be filed Thursday ...
7 Jul, 2011, 06.44PM IST,AFP
WikiLeaks delays complaint against Visa, Mastercard: Report
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/wikileaks-delays-complaint-against-visa-mastercard-report/articleshow/9138670.cms

[dipsydoodle]

2. Visa Says It's Still Not Processing Transactions for WikiLeaks

Contrary to widely-circulated reports in the Associated Press and Forbes, Visa did not lift its financial blockade on WikiLeaks, a Visa spokesperson tells The Atlantic Wire. Earlier today, headlines splashed across the web "WikiLeaks MasterCard, Visa Donations Accepted Again" after Andreas Fink, the chief executive of DataCell, an internet hosting service in Iceland that helps channel money to WikiLeaks, posted a note on his company's web site saying, "DataCell is happy to report that we are now able again to process donations to Wikileaks." The AP and Forbes were careful to note that neither MasterCard nor Visa had confirmed the report. Now, Visa is making it clear: "We have not reinstated DataCell and are looking into how transactions are being made."

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2011/07/visa-says-its-still-not-processing-transactions-wikileaks/39705/

Wikileaks published the above link on FB 3 minutes ago.