EU ruling may lower card fees – Swedish Dagbladet

EU ruling may lower card fees – Swedish Dagbladet

Swedish Trade believes that the judgment could ultimately reduce prices for Swedish consumers.

The verdict in the pipe cross-border trade and basically it’s about a lack of competition.

– MasterCard and Visa accounts for 95 percent of all transactions, so when they raise their fees have not any options traders. This will add the increased costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices, says Bengt Nilervall, responsible for pay issues at Swedish Trade.

The dispute has been going on since 2007, but now there are no more opportunities to appeal the ruling. It is MasterCard’s use of so-called interchange fees allegedly infringe the competition rules.

When you as a consumer is with a card shop owner’s bank must pay a fee to your bank for the service. This charge falls back to the shop owner. EU court claiming that it leads to the store owner is forced to raise their prices for consumers.

In Sweden pulls the banks and card companies in some 15 billion annually on the card fees, according to the Swedish Trade appreciation.

Nilervall says that the judgment does not have any immediate effect, but believe it can lead to a political decision on price caps and hence lower prices in the trade.