18 June 2012 7:12am

A proposed merger of two consumer payments firms in New Zealand won't proceed after the Commerce Commission resolved to block the deal.

epay New Zealand was seeking to take over Ezi-Pay. Both epay and Ezi-Pay manage the recharge of mobile phone accounts and gift cards.

Epay is a subsidiary of Euronet Worldwide.  Ezi-Pay was founded in Wellington, in 2003.

The Commission wrote in a short announcement on Friday that it was concerned the acquisition might substantially lessen competition in the pre-paid mobile phone recharge market.

No such objections applied...