As part of a long-running investigation, the EU has stated that it suspects Mastercard is artificially inflating the costs of card-based transactions. The EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that over-inflated prices negatively affect both retailers and consumers within the EU.
In its response, Mastercard stated that the company is working hand in hand with the European Commission whilst keeping the needs of both consumers and retailers in mind in issuing a formal report about this issue. At the same time, separate investigations into Visa's card payment costs are also being carried out.
If it were to be ruled that Mastercard is artificially raising the fees of card-based payments by making merchants pay inflated prices for the processing of credit card payments, the company would be violating competition rules.
Earlier this year, a vote was taken in the European Parliament in favour of capping bank fees incurred by shoppers and retailers on card payments. The new regulations concerning fixed fee-capping rates aim to set in place clear schemes to enhance fee transparency and stimulate competition.
The EU is currently focusing on interchange fees, namely the fees paid by retailers in order to process card-based transactions.
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