EU charges Mastercard with price-fixing

The European Commission today said it had charged MasterCard with fixing the fees retailers must pay for accepting MasterCard and Maestro branded cards, restricting competition between banks who used the service.

“The Commission’s preliminary view is that such behaviour is contrary to the EC Treaty’s ban on restrictive business practices,” it said in a Luxembourg statement. The charge sheet was sent on June 23, it said.

It is the second time EU regulators have accused MasterCard of breaking antitrust rules.

In September 2003, they filed charges against MasterCard for its cross-border interchange fees, which are paid by merchant banks to card-issuing banks for payments made with a MasterCard or a Maestro card.