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A row has erupted between digital payments companies PhonePe and Paytm after the former approached law enforcement authorities alleging that three employees of the latter burnt its QR codes.

The incident allegedly took place in Uttar Pradesh’s Greater Noida and PhonePe has now approached Surajpur Lakhnawali police station to register a case in the matter.

It is to be noted that the two employees involved in the incident worked at PhonePe. 

In a statement, Paytm alleged that the matter was ‘between PhonePe and its ex-employees.’ 

“This matter is between PhonePe and its ex-employees. We condemn the act committed by these rogue employees, who have already been suspended from the company pending a detailed investigation,” said Paytm.

Retorting to Paytm’s allegations, PhonePe chief executive officer (CEO) Sameer Nigam took to Twitter to vent his anger. 

“Worth mentioning that this ‘ex’ employee of PhonePe works for Paytm now, and there are 10 other people in the video burning @PhonePe QR codes in broad daylight. Anyways, let the police investigate the matter and justice prevail…”, tweeted Nigam. 

A PhonePe spokesperson also told Inc42, “We have full confidence in the police and they are taking the necessary steps at the moment.”

“PhonePe has approached the police based on a video of a pile of its QR codes being set ablaze. We were able to identify some of the people in the video, including a Paytm area sales manager,” PhonePe said in a statement sent to Inc42.

However, PhonePe is unlikely to file an FIR in the matter, according to sources.

The fiasco comes as both sides continue to fight for a bigger pie of the digital payments market. PhonePe leads the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) space, accounting for 45.84% of the total transactions and nearly 50% of the total UPI value in June this year.

On the other hand, Paytm pulled in 14.72% of the total number of transactions and 10% of the total value processed in June 2022. 

QR codes are digital payment acceptance channels that are displayed at shops and other merchant establishments to facilitate receipt of payments. These QR codes are generally made of paper and are stuck to walls to enable business owners to easily accept UPI payments.

The digital payments space has been witnessing intense competition over the last few years and is populated by other major fintech players such as Google Pay, BharatPe and others. 

Walmart-backed PhonePe has onboarded 32 Mn merchants via its QR codes so far, while Paytm claimed to have a merchant base of 26.7 Mn at the end of March this year.