Retailers urged the European Commission to crack down on visas and Mastercard
By foo yun cheese
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s largest retailer and online retailer is urging the European Commission to curb the high costs that Visas and Mastercard have been charged, undermining the block’s competitiveness and sabotage its rivals.
Visa and MasterCard dominate the payment card market and have faced complaints from retailers in recent years about fees, which retailers say are lack of transparency in these fees. The two US companies process around two-thirds of card payments in the Eurozone.
Retailer complaints have partially urged the European Union in 27 countries to look into alternatives such as the digital euro to reduce their reliance on American payment providers. However, the slow legislative process in digital currency has led to some policymakers and businesses being unhappy.
“The International Card Scheme (ICS) allowed them to raise fees without competitive challenges or regulations scrutiny. They also made their system of fees and regulations so complicated and opaque, they provided what to pay, not to mention challenges, not to mention players.”
ICS is a term for payment card networks.
The group cited a 2024 report showing a cumulative increase in ICS costs of 33.9% between 2018 and 2022 – in addition to inflation, an average annual average of 7.6%, but no improvements were seen in response to EU merchants and consumer services.
Visa said its fees reflect the value of the services to European financial institutions, merchants and consumers.
“This includes a very high level of security and fraud prevention, near-perfect operational resilience and reliability, a wide range of consumer protection and high quality, innovative products and services that serve the needs of consumers and merchants,” a Visa spokesman said.
MasterCard did not respond to requests for comment.
The letter was addressed to the Committee’s antitrust chief Teresalivera, Financial Services Commissioner Marialis Albuquerque and economy chief Bardis Dombrovsky.
The signatories were Eurocommerce, e-commerce Europe, Independent Retail Europe, European Corporate Finance Association, and the European Digital Payment Industry Union.
Members of the lobby group include Aldi, Amazon, Carrefour, Ebay, H&M, Ikea, Intersport, Marks & Spencer, Worldline, Nexi and Teya.
The committee will be asked to take action against Visa and MasterCard under the EU antitrust rules, and will change the rules for exchange fees by introducing regulatory tools to collect fees, collection, ICS liability and scrutinize actions taken by ICSS.
(Reporting by Hu Yun Chi of Brussels, edited by Nia Williams and Rod Nickel)