EU wins landmark ruling over credit, payment card fees

Report of the judgement in ECJ (GC) Case T‑111/08 Mastercard (et al) v European Commission (et al), May 2012. The General Court confirmed the European Commission’s decision prohibiting the multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) applied by MasterCard.

The FT reported that European consumers should as a result of the judgement face more transparent credit and debit card fees and potentially lower retail costs.

The legal certainty from the ruling would add new urgency to
the EU investigation of Visa’s credit card fees, multiple national court cases on domestic fees and an ongoing probe by the UK Office of Fair Trading.

• Primary Source

ECJ: Press Release, No.69, 2012: Judgment in Case T-111/08 MasterCard, Inc and Others v Commission http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012-05/cp120069en.pdf

ESO: Background information: Mastercard strikes Brussels deal over fees http://www.europeansources.info/record/mastercard-strikes-brussels-deal-over-fees/

European Commission: MEMO/12/377: Antitrust: Commission welcomes General Court judgment in MasterCard case http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/377&format=PDF&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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