Lawyers representing the credit card processor used by WikiLeaks are suing Visa and MasterCard in the United States over the 2010 banking bl...
Lawyers representing the credit card processor used by WikiLeaks are suing Visa and MasterCard in the United States over the 2010 banking blockade that kept the anti-secrecy group from receiving funds.
On Monday this week, American attorneys for Icelandic hosting provider DataCell ehf filed suit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in hopes of having a federal judge award the company upwards of $5 million for what it claims was a coordinated attempt between Visa and MasterCard to restrict funding to WikiLeaks after the secret-spilling organization started publishing classified US State Department cables over four years ago.
WikiLeaks’ payment issues began shortly after October 2010, when DataCell and Sunshine Press – the not-for-profit media organization that operates the transparency site – entered into a contract that authorized the Icelandic firm to process the electronic donations expected to quickly come in upon the impending release of the State Department cables.
Contributions to the website were soon stifled, however, when both Visa and MasterCard – who together controlled 95.5 percent of the payment card marketat the time – refused to let customers give financial support to WikiLeaks through DataCell.
“The defendants did not have a legitimate economic reason to prevent creditcard payments to DataCell,” attorneys for the firm allege, adding that “the defendants' blockade of credit card payments to DataCell, because of its association with Sunshine Press, injured the media market by suppressing the market place of ideas.”
Much more:
http://rt.com/usa/214007-datacell-wikileaks-bank-blockade/
On Monday this week, American attorneys for Icelandic hosting provider DataCell ehf filed suit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in hopes of having a federal judge award the company upwards of $5 million for what it claims was a coordinated attempt between Visa and MasterCard to restrict funding to WikiLeaks after the secret-spilling organization started publishing classified US State Department cables over four years ago.
WikiLeaks’ payment issues began shortly after October 2010, when DataCell and Sunshine Press – the not-for-profit media organization that operates the transparency site – entered into a contract that authorized the Icelandic firm to process the electronic donations expected to quickly come in upon the impending release of the State Department cables.
Contributions to the website were soon stifled, however, when both Visa and MasterCard – who together controlled 95.5 percent of the payment card marketat the time – refused to let customers give financial support to WikiLeaks through DataCell.
“The defendants did not have a legitimate economic reason to prevent creditcard payments to DataCell,” attorneys for the firm allege, adding that “the defendants' blockade of credit card payments to DataCell, because of its association with Sunshine Press, injured the media market by suppressing the market place of ideas.”
Much more:
http://rt.com/usa/214007-datacell-wikileaks-bank-blockade/
