By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU antitrust regulatory authorities are exploring whether the charges billed by Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) have an unfavorable effect on sellers, an EU paper seen by Reuters revealed.
The European Commission, which applies EU competitors guidelines, sent out sets of questions regarding both Visa and Mastercard to sellers and repayment company in September, providing till October to react.
Visa and Mastercard have lengthy controlled the marketplace for repayment cards, triggering grievances from sellers regarding supposed plan charges imposed by the 2 companies recently, in addition to what they state is an absence of openness on them.
Scheme charges are billed by a card repayment system driver for solutions connecting to engagement in the card system.
“We have no further comment to make, as the investigation is ongoing,” the EU antitrust guard dog claimed when asked by Reuters to discuss the materials of the paper.
Such sets of questions generally aid EU regulatory authorities to create an anti-trust instance, which if sought and effective can cause penalties of as high as 10% of a firm’s international turn over.
Among the concerns asked is whether the variety of charges in the EEA, the 27 EU nations plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, in which the merchant is energetic and “the continuous introduction of new fees and deletion of existing fees” adversely influenced their company in the duration 2016-2023.
The set of questions likewise asks whether sellers and repayment company are sought advice from on the intro and removal of charges and cost walks.
A Visa agent claimed the business obtained an ask for info from the Commission in late August and was resolving it “to supply the relevant information”.
Mastercard claimed: “Governments and regulators around the world want to ensure they have line of sight into how industries work. That’s what this is, a simple request for information.”
Retailers and repayment company were asked whether they can bargain plan charges, handling charges and development charges with Visa and Mastercard, and if such conversations are conditioned by the approval of certain items from them.
Processing charges are billed by refining entities consisting of card repayment system drivers to repayment company for solutions connecting to technological handling for authorizing, removing and working out card repayments.
The EU regulatory authorities likewise would like to know if sellers and repayment providers are outlined the degree of behavioral or conformity charges or penalties imposed by Visa and Mastercard and the reason provided for them.
