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Informist, Monday, Mar. 17, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court has sought a response from National Payments Corp. of India and other parties over the latter allegedly using On4Off Trading Pvt. Ltd.'s patented technology process for aggregating Unified Payments Interface payments using credit cards. On4Off Trading, which had filed a permanent injunction suit against NPCI and others, had also sought compensatory damages for infringing on its patent process. 

 

In January, the high court had referred the parties to mediation and appointed Justice A.K. Sikri as the mediator. However, as per the report filed by the mediator, the mediation proceedings were a "non-starter", the high court noted. The court has, therefore, issued summons to National Payments Corp. of India and others in the case.

 

On4Off Trading said one of its directors, along with his two children, had patented the process that allows one to make a monetary transaction from a credit card after scanning a UPI quick response code. They invented a method and system that facilitates payments through various financial instruments after scanning the UPI code, the company said.

 

The petitioner said then Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das had issued a statement that said that the central bank was planning to allow linking RuPay credit cards with UPI. In 2022, the RBI issued a circular allowing UPI transactions using RuPay credit cards.

 

Earlier, UPI transactions were only allowed through debit cards, the petitioner said. However, according to the circular, a transaction could be facilitated using only RuPay credit cards after scanning a UPI QR code, the petitioner said. NPCI was using the patented process that was assigned to the petitioner without any licence or permission from them, said On4Off Trading. 

 

By facilitating transactions through RuPay credit cards with UPI QR codes, NPCI has internalised the entire process developed by the inventor, in as much as both the RuPay and the UPI are the products of NPCI, the petitioner said. Allowing linkage of only RuPay credit cards with UPI is a business strategy implemented by NPCI to leverage illegal benefits from the unauthorised use of the patented process, said the petitioner.

 

It was also affecting the market of other card manufacturers, who have been authorised to sell their credit cards in India, said the petitioner. "As per the data published also available on the website of Defendant No. 1 (NPCI) in the month of October 2023, total transaction of Rupees 100 Crores (INR 1 billion) have been facilitated through RuPay Credit Cards on UPI QR Code and during the weekends the figure reached up to Rupees 150-200 Crores (INR 1.5 billion to INR 2 billion)," the petitioner said.

 

Other defendants in the case are the third-party application providers and banking institutions that help in facilitating the process patented by the plaintiff and are gaining illegal benefits through the unauthorised use of this process, the petitioner said.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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