- Retailers like Aldi, Amazon and Carrefour have supported a complaint against Visa/Mastercard
- High fees and lack of transparency is central to the discussion
- Fees rose 33.9% between 2018 and 2022
Larger European retailers and online platforms have called on the Europe Commission to tackle tall fees charged by Visa and Mastercard, according to a report from Pakinomist.
Complaints relate to the negative effect of fees on EU competitiveness and the lack of transparency around them, with the two payment network providers that dominate about two-thirds of transactions in the euro zone.
Retailers have accused the international map schemes (ICS) of uncontrolled fee increases and complex price structures that are not always so clear.
Visa and Mastercard criticized over fees in Europe
A report from Brattle Group from 2024 revealed a cumulative increase of 33.9% across ICS fees between 2018 and 2022, despite no similar improvement or justification for service.
Visa has defended its fees: “This includes extremely high levels of safety and fraud prevention, almost perfectly operational resilience and reliability and a wide range of consumer protection and high quality, innovative products and services serving consumer and trade needs.”
An excerpt from the letter addressed to Commission Antitrust Manager Teresa Ribera, Commissioner of Financial Services Maria Luís Albuquerque and Economy Chief Valdis Dombrovskis, seen by Pakinomistreader:
“International map schemes (ICS) have been able to increase their fees without competitiveness or regulatory control. They have also given their fee system and rules so complex and opaque that players are unable to understand what as much as they pay for and why.”
Supporters include larger unions and companies such as Aldi, Amazon, Carrefour, H&M, IKEA and EBAY.
They call for antitrust action against the two payment network providers, including the introduction of fee regulation, transparency and further regulatory tools.
The two companies had previously agreed to reduce their multilateral exchange fees for payments in the EEA with an average of approx. 40%.
