Retailers urge European Commission to crack down on Visa, Mastercard

Written by Fu Yun Chi

BRUSSELION (Reuters) – The European Commission’s largest retailer and retail companies urged the European Commission to curb the alleged fees that VISA and MasterCard are claiming, saying they have harmed the competitiveness of the mass and sweating competitors.

Visa and MasterCard dominate the payment cards market and in recent years it faces complaints from retailers about their fees, and what retailers say is the lack of transparency on these fees. The two American companies treat about two thirds of the cards payments in the euro area.

The grievances of retailers partially pushed the European Union of 27 countries to discuss alternatives such as the digital euro to reduce dependence on American payment providers. However, the slow legislative process of digital currency has thwarted some policymakers and companies.

“The international cards plans (ICS) managed to increase their fees without a competitive challenge or organizational scrutiny. They also presented their system of complicated and complex fees and rules that the players are unable to understand, not to mention the challenge, what they pay and why.”

ICS is a term for the payment card network.

The group cited the 2024 report of the Brattle Group, which showed a cumulative increase in ICS fees by 33.9 % between 2018 and 2022 – with an average of 7.6 % per year – in addition to inflation, but it did not find any improvement in the service of merchants and consumers in the European Union.

Visa said its fees reflect the value of its services for financial institutions, merchants and consumers in Europe.

“This includes very high levels of security and fraud prevention, almost ideal and reliability operational flexibility, and a wide range of consumer protection, high -quality innovative products and services that serve the needs of consumers and merchants,” said a VISA spokesman.

MasterCard did not respond to the comment.

The letter was sent to the head of the anti -monopoly team at the Teresa Ribera committee, the detonators of financial services Maria Louis Albukirk and the head of the economy Valdes Dombrovscis.

The signers are European papers, e -commerce in Europe, independent retail, the European Treasury Association of Corporate Treasury and the European Digital Payments Alliance.

Among the members of the aldi, Amazon, Carrefour, Ebay, H&M, IKEA, Intersport, Marks & Spencer, Worldline, Nexi and TEya.

The letter called on the committee to take measures against VISA and MasterCard under the rules of anti -monopoly in the European Union, amend the rules of exchange fees by imposing price controls on fees, transparency, and non -discriminatory obligations on ICSS and introducing an organizations tool to rid the measures taken by ICSS.

(Participated in the reports of Fu Yun Che in Brussels; Liberation by Nia Williams and Roses Nickel)