MasterCard's Temporary Repeal of Intra-EEA Interchange Fees
MasterCard Europe (MCE) has announced that "as of June 21, 2008 MasterCard is temporarily repealing its current MasterCard and Maestro intra-EEA cross-border consumer card interchange fees in conformity with the European Commission's December 19, 2007 decision. MCE said it will continue its dialogue with the Commission services about an interchange fee methodology that the Commission services believe is consistent with the decision. MCE also said it will continue to pursue its appeal of the decision to the European Court of First Instance, which it filed on March 1."
On announcing MasterCard's decision, Javier Perez, President, MasterCard Europe, said: "We said in December that although we strongly disagree with the European Commission's decision, we would comply with it. At the same time, we have solid legal arguments supporting our appeal of the decision to the European Court of First Instance, and we will continue to vigorously pursue that appeal. MasterCard's policy is to comply with all applicable decisions and regulations, but to challenge them through appropriate channels when we believe that is necessary.
"MasterCard believes that its cross-border interchange system has kept the cost of payment cards low for cardholders, and if left unchallenged the Commission's decision will be bad news for European consumers.
"We trust that the Commission does appreciate that some level of interchange is necessary to share costs among all participants in a payment system that operates across Europe and the world. However, despite our having made several proposals to reduce substantially cross-border consumer interchange fees, we have not yet reached an understanding with the Commission services on future steps. Therefore, in order to ensure our compliance with the decision, we have taken this action while we continue discussions with them.
"Although we are complying with the June 21 deadline, it's important to keep in mind that this decision only applies to intra-EEA cross-border consumer card interchange fees. The level of these fees in the future will depend on the result of our continuing dialogue with the Commission and, ultimately, upon the outcome of MasterCard's appeal. Moreover the transactions affected amount to less than five percent of MasterCard Europe volume, and we do not anticipate any significant near-term financial impact as a result of today's action. Nor do we anticipate being disadvantaged versus other four-party payment systems, in light of the Commission's stated intention to apply the logic of the decision to all similar systems.
"We remain committed to taking the necessary steps to continue providing a system that benefits millions of European cardholders and merchants who rely on MasterCard and Maestro cards, and to providing our customers with competitive payments products and services."
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