Lima, April 8, 2025 – Peru’s competition authority has imposed a significant penalty on Visa International for abusing its dominant position in the country’s payment card sector.
The National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi), through its Commission for the Defense of Free Competition (CLC), fined Visa International Service Association and Visa International Peru SRL a total of 202.92 UIT (equivalent to over S/ 1 million, depending on current UIT value). The sanction follows findings that Visa unlawfully restricted market access for payment facilitators between April and September 2023.
According to Resolution No. 048-2025/CLC-INDECOPI, Visa unjustifiably denied access to its network for local payment facilitators Ebanx Perú SAC and Demerge Perú SAC (Dlocal), preventing them from enrolling foreign merchants and processing their payments. This conduct, Indecopi ruled, constituted an abuse of dominance that stifled competition in the local market for payment card services.
Although the CLC also reviewed Visa’s Expanded Merchant Location Pilot Program (EMLP) as part of the investigation, it found no anticompetitive effects from that specific initiative.
In Peru, Visa operates as a brand licensee, and its platform is critical for issuers, acquirers, and payment facilitators. Ebanx and Dlocal provide local processing services for foreign merchants selling goods or services to Peruvian consumers using Visa or other payment options.
Beyond the financial sanction, corrective measures were also imposed. Visa must now refrain from obstructing any local payment facilitator from affiliating with non-resident merchants and processing their transactions via authorized local acquirers.
The sanctioned practices were found in violation of articles 1, 10.1, and 10.2(a) of Peru’s Consolidated Text of the Law on the Suppression of Anticompetitive Conduct.
Visa may still appeal the decision to the Specialized Chamber for the Defense of Competition of the Indecopi Tribunal—the final administrative review body, which can uphold, modify, or overturn the ruling.
Full resolution: https://bit.ly/3RFb45T
