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Retail Groups Sue Visa, MasterCard

Link: Latest Business News and Financial Information | Reuters.co.uk.

Several retail groups have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa USA, MasterCard International and dozens of major U.S. banks, saying they acted together to set excessive credit card fees.

The lawsuit, filed Friday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, concerns interchange fees, which retail merchants pay to issuing banks to receive payments for transactions involving the banks' cards.

Senior Project Manager - Payment Industry Jobs

Link: Senior Project Manager - Payment Industry Jobs at Executives on the Web.

An expanding successful company within the payments industry is looking to recruit a Senior Project Manager to manage the existing team of Project Managers that are assigned to end clients and existing project work. You will be responsible for all the active projects and their deliverables within the business, ensuring that all work carried out is at an agreed high standard. You wil work closely with all other areas of the business - Pres-Sales, Operations, Support, Development and Service Delivery to ensure that customer requirements are met on time under agredd SLA's. You will be responsible for managing customer expectations regarding all the project deliverables, as well as all aspects of the delivery of the project.

Click & Buy to Offer Phone Billing in US

Link: InternetRetailer.com - Daily News for Monday, September 26, 2005.

Click&Buy, an Internet-based micro-payments network that allows consumers to pay small prices for web-based digital content, will offer U.S. users a phone billing option through SBC Communications Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. beginning in November.

relics of the Soviet KGB Working Against Credit Card Companies

Link: Online fraudsters 'ahead' of credit card companies, experts say - Computerworld.

The top security experts at the world's two biggest credit card companies say that the battle against Internet-based thieves has reached a stalemate and that the industry will have to spend millions of dollars over the next decade just to keep up with criminals.

Speaking at a conference in Memphis on Monday, John Shaughnessy, senior vice president for fraud prevention at Visa U.S.A. Inc. and Suzanne Lynch, vice president for security and risk services at MasterCard International Inc., said that organized crime rings -- with the help, in many cases, of former Soviet KGB cryptographers -- are successfully using the Internet and "crimeware" software programs to circumvent the defenses credit card issuers have erected against them.

Credit card companies can keep data ID theft secret | The Register

Link: Credit card companies can keep data ID theft secret | The Register.

Credit card companies don't have to notify customers their personal information has been stolen, a California Judge ruled today.

The Rothken law firm in Marin County, Ca had brought a class action suit on behalf of cardholders and merchants against CardSystems Solutions, Visa and MasterCard following a high profile data ID heist in June

Paypal Goes Mobile in UK

Link: Can Bango, Paypal help WAP fight back?.

BRITISH MOBILE payment specialist, Bango, has teamed up with Paypal to enable mobile phone to purchase content using their existing Paypal accounts. It provides an easy route for content providers to sell to a wider range of handset owners.

At present, many mobile phone owners have limited means of paying for mobile content like ringtones, games, wallpapers and smut. They're often restricted to direct payments from their phone bill or via premium rate text message (Premium SMS).

New Billing Solution For VOIP Wholesalers

Link: Sigma Software Launches Dual Customer Care and Billing Solution Tuned for Seamless Operations Between VoIP Wholesalers and Resellers.

Sigma Software Solutions today launched a dual customer care and billing solution that enables VoIP wholesalers to rapidly set up seamless operations with their reseller partners. The twin package of Sigma OmniCare for VoIP Wholesalers and OmniCare for VoIP Resellers provides an end-to-end customer, order and revenue management solution on the same platform across multiple VoIP service partners.

eBay to buy Skype for $2.6 billion in cash, stock | CNET News.com

Link: eBay to buy Skype for $2.6 billion in cash, stock | CNET News.com.

eBay has agreed to buy the fast-growing Internet start-up Skype in a move to add free Web telephone calls to its online auctions and fuel growth, the companies confirmed Monday.

eBay said it plans to pay $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock for the Web communications company. It would make a further payout of up to $1.5 billion by 2008 or 2009 if financial targets are met, giving the deal a total value of up to $4.1 billion, executives of the two companies said.

MTV Tries To Get More Insight Into Mobile Content

Link: Wireless Week - MTV Delves Deeper into Mobile Content.

Mobile entertainment trends will be the focus of a newly announced research initiative announced this week by MTV Networks International and VeriSign subsidiaries.

Jamster! and Jamba! intend to launch a study to better understand consumers' usage, mechanics and frequency of mobile phone downloads. The goal of the study is to unlock the mystery of how mobile content is evolving and to use that information to develop compelling applications, MTV says

Would You Pay A Sales Tax Online?

Link: Renewing the push to collect Net taxes | CNET News.com.

On Oct. 1, 13 states will officially launch reformed systems that pledge compliance with the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement, first devised in 2002 by a committee of state tax officials and billed as a way to make tax administration simpler and more uniform. Five more states have passed laws that, over the next two years, will bring them into compliance with the agreement.

Compliance with the system won't change the fact that tax collection remains voluntary for companies without a physical presence in the states where their orders originate, thanks to a 1992 Supreme Court decision.