Retailers urge European Commission to crack down on Visa, MasterCard

Foo Yun Chee

Wed, May 14, 2025, 10:32 AM 2 min read

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Europe's largest retailers and online retail giants person urged the European Commission to rein successful allegedly precocious fees charged by Visa and Mastercard, saying they wounded the bloc's competitiveness and hamper rivals.

Visa and Mastercard predominate the marketplace for outgo cards and person successful caller years faced complaints from retailers astir their strategy fees, and what retailers accidental is simply a deficiency of transparency connected these fees. The 2 U.S. companies process astir two-thirds of paper payments successful the euro zone.

The retailers' grievances person successful portion prompted the 27-country European Union to look into alternatives specified arsenic a integer euro to lessen dependence connected American outgo providers. The dilatory legislative process connected a integer currency, however, has frustrated immoderate policymakers and businesses.

"International Card Schemes (ICS) person been capable to summation their fees without competitory situation oregon regulatory scrutiny. They person besides rendered their strategy of fees and rules truthful analyzable and opaque that players are incapable to understand, fto unsocial challenge, what they are paying for and why," the retailers said successful a missive dated May 13 and seen by Reuters.

The radical cited a 2024 study by The Brattle Group that showed a cumulative summation successful ICS' fees of 33.9% betwixt 2018 and 2022 - averaging 7.6% per twelvemonth - connected apical of inflation, but did not find immoderate corresponding betterment successful work for EU merchants and consumers.

Visa and Mastercard did not person immoderate contiguous comment.

The missive was addressed to the Commission's antitrust main Teresa Ribera, fiscal services commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque and system main Valdis Dombrovskis.

Signatories were EuroCommerce, Ecommerce Europe, Independent Retail Europe, the European Association of Corporate Treasurers and the European Digital Payments Industry Alliance.

Members of the lobby groups see Aldi, Amazon, Carrefour, eBay, H&M, Ikea, Intersport, Marks & Spencer, Worldline, Nexi and Teya.

The missive called connected the Commission to instrumentality enactment against Visa and Mastercard nether EU antitrust rules, modify the rules connected interchange fees by imposing terms controls connected strategy fees, levy transparency and non-discriminatory obligations connected ICSs and present a instrumentality for regulators to scrutinise actions taken by the ICSs.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee successful Brussels; Editing by Nia Williams)