WikiLeaks sues Visa and MasterCard over financial blockade

WikiLeaks and one of its service providers, DataCell, have launched a legal case against Visa and MasterCard for blocking donations to the organisation after it published diplomatic cables from the US State department.

WikiLeaks and its associates were blocked from receiving payments from supporters in December by MasterCard and Visa, which said that they were taking the action in case WikiLeaks was breaking the law.

The blockade led to a sustained distributed denial-of-service attack against the two payment companies, and threats of legal action from WikiLeaks and Danish payment processor Teller.

"Teller has acknowledged that it is ready to reinstate the services as due diligence by the company has not found any violations by DataCell, but, despite this, the company has been ordered by Visa and MasterCard to keep the payment services closed," said WikiLeaks in a statement.

"Visa and MasterCard (which have 70 and 25 per cent market share in Europe respectively) have not answered the demands or shown willingness to negotiate a settlement.

"In light of this outcome DataCell and WikiLeaks will instruct their international legal team to take actions against these companies in the coming days as outlined above. Further actions in other jurisdictions will follow."

Lawyers acting for WikiLeaks will file complaints with the Danish courts and the European Commission.

The legal case could shed light on whether MasterCard and Visa's blockade was legal, and may show whether any pressure was put on the companies to deny WikiLeaks funds.

A study into WikiLeaks by a third-party consultant commissioned by Visa and published in January cleared the site of any illegal activity.