Question 38679 — payment methods

Summary

Mr. Pierre-Alain Raphan questions the Secretary of State to the Ministers of the Economy, Finance and Recovery, and Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Authorities, responsible for digital transition and electronic communications, on the competitive situation in the sector of new technologies applied to financial activities. On April 29, 2021, the Competition Authority issued an opinion on the evaluation of the competitive situation in the sector of new technologies applied to financial activities and, more particularly, to payment activities. The president of the authority mentions the “risk of strengthening the market power” of digital giants such as the American GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) or, ultimately, the Chinese BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi). This development seems particularly significant because platform-type players have considerable advantages to assert: they control ecosystems relying on large communities of users, have access to vast sets of data and have the technical capacity to put them to use. In addition, by relying, for payment processing, on traditional banking players and bank card groups, the large Platforms have the capacity to reap significant profits, without being subject to the regulatory constraints that weigh on banking players. The competition authority's opinion highlights the following risks: the competitive relationship between bank services and the services of new entrants; barriers to entry and expansion; the competitive advantages of the different players in the sector; a risk of strengthening the market power of BigTech and locking in consumers. In October 2020, after sixteen months of investigations and a report of more than 400 pages, the antitrust subcommittee of the American House of Representatives precisely described the monopoly of one of the GAFA on the applications market. According to American parliamentarians, this company notably prevents the emergence of any competition thanks to dual control of its operating system and its store. In doing so, the mechanics of the rule laid down by the manufacturer on in-app purchases, and in particular the famous 30% commission levied on the price of applications and also on subscription services, constituted from its conception a distortion of competition. This company also requires everyone to use its IAP (in app payment) payment system and has made “ sherlocking” (practice which consists of copying innovative applications for its own benefit by integrating them as a new free service) an assumed practice of its economic development to the detriment of the competition. He asks him to enlighten him on the Government's strategy and proposals in the face of this phenomenon impacting the sovereignty of France and the emergence of territorial actors in these sectors. He wishes know what measures are being taken by the Government to regulate this monopolistic behavior.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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