Paypal’s acquisition of izettle under scrutiny

Internet giant Paypal’s $2.2 billion (£1.7bn) takeover of Swedish start-up rival izettle could lead to higher prices or reduce the quality of services available to customers in the UK, competition officials said yesterday.

The Paypal deal completed in September and followed izettle’s takeover of Edinburgh-based intelligent payment provider IPOS in 2016 for an undisclosed sum.

In its statement, the Compe- tition and Markets Authority said that had izettle not been taken over, it could have provided strong competition for Paypal, potentially lowering prices and driving innovation for customers.

The deal will go to an indepth investigation if Paypal and izettle are unable to address the regulator’s concerns. izettle was launched to develop credit and debit card readers that can be plugged into smartphones and tablets. It has expanded into areas such as an e-commerce platform which tracks items.