On a question concerning Meir-Keeler contractions in complete \(b\)-metric spaces (Q6112511)

By constructing an involved example, the authors prove that the Meir-Keeler-type contractive condition \(\varepsilon\le d(x,y)<\varepsilon+\delta\implies s\,d(Tx,Ty)<\varepsilon\), that guarantees the existence of a fixed point of a self-map \(T\) on a complete \(b\)-metric space \((X,d,s)\) with \(s>1\), cannot be replaced by the standard condition \(\varepsilon\le d(x,y)<\varepsilon+\delta\implies d(Tx,Ty)<\varepsilon\), even if the \(b\)-metric \(d\) is continuous. If, additionally, it is supposed that \(\delta(\varepsilon)\) is increasing, then a positive answer is obtained.