MasterCard loses EU card fees court case
MASTERCARD has said it will appeal an EU court ruling that upholds Brussels’ ban on extra fees for cross-border card transactions.
MasterCard’s president in Europe Javier Perez said that the ruling would hinder its development of new payment technologies.
Retailers, who benefit from lower fees as a result of the EU ban, welcomed the decision by the General Court of Luxembourg – the EU’s second highest court after the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The British Retail Consortium said that the UK, where regulators are currently looking into card fees, should also cap fees that card providers charge for giving retailers the ability to accept card payment, claiming they are “an unjustifiable tax on customers and retailers”.
But MasterCard argues that if it cannot charge retailers what it wants, it will have to charge consumers more instead.