The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants to oblige Mastercard to start providing competing payment networks with the information they need to process card payments. In the proposed enforcement action, announced on Friday, the FTC said Mastercard allegedly violated a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act, known as the Durbin Amendment, by prohibiting merchants from routing transactions through alternative networks.

The actions are aimed at “tokenization” – the technology behind mobile payment applications such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

When you make a debit or credit card purchase using your smartphone’s mobile wallet, the software replaces sensitive information, including the primary number associated with your account, with a separate set of one-time “tokens.” Mastercard and Visa say this practice prevents fraud because the tokens do not contain information that can be used while they are “in transit.” Only after they reach the Mastercard or Visa servers and are linked to the original account holder do they point to someone.

According to the FTC, Mastercard has historically not allowed competing networks to access its token vault. This means that every time consumers chose to pay with a mobile wallet, merchants had to route the transaction through Mastercard (or Visa) and pay the company a transaction fee that is typically higher than its competitors. The Durbin Amendment calls for banks to support two competing payment networks on all debit cards. This provision was enacted by Congress to promote competition among networks. The FTC has not said whether it has reached a similar settlement with Visa.

“While we are taking these steps to bring this matter to a close, there should be no question that tokenized transactions provide an increased level of protection to both consumers and merchants,” said Mastercard representative Seth Eisen to Bloomberg. “This focus on security guides our efforts in a highly competitive market and provides the incentive for us to continue investing in innovations that promote the peace of mind every person expects.”

The FTC plans to collect comments from the public before voting to finalize the ruling against Mastercard.