EU Court Rules Hungary's State Monopoly Over Mobile Payments Is Illegal (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday November 7, 2018 @11:20AM from the not-on-my-watch dept.

Hungarian state's monopoly over national mobile payment services has been ruled illegal by the European Court of Justice. "The ruling would require the end of exclusive control over Hungarian mobile payments exercised since July 2014 by state-owned firm Nemzeti Mobilfizetesi Zrt," reports Reuters. "This exclusive operation 'is contrary to EU law,' the bloc's top court said in a statement."

"Even if the services provided under that system constitute services of general economic interest, their supply cannot be reserved to a state monopoly," the court added.

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Re:Next up: Corporations printing their own cash by ffkom · 2018-11-07 11:50 · Score: 3, Interesting

Actually, yes, because such payment systems are one of those things where "market mechanisms" do not cause healthy competition in the long run. And a state-owned monopoly, which is at least indirectly controllable (via elections) is a lot better than some arbitrary mega-corporation skimming money off every transaction.

I actually still prefer the mobile payment system "cash", which is state owned, and does not make me the product of data krakens.