GRTU was delighted to learn of the
news of the further antitrust action taken by the European Commission against
MasterCard's inter-bank fees. This is excellent news for consumers
and retailers across Europe who have suffered long enough from the
unjustifiably high fees and the anticompetitive practices of the card schemes.
The new investigation will cover
issues not yet addressed in the Commission's decision of 2007, which was upheld
on appeal by the European General Court in May 2012. The court confirmed that
MasterCard's cross-border multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) were in breach
of European competition law. However, since MasterCard has taken the case to
further appeal on points of law, many national competition authorities still
have not taken action.
The new investigation will look into
restrictive rules on cross-border acquiring and the honour all cards rule
(HACR): these have long been of great concern to the retail sector. The HACR
compels merchants to accept some cards which carry very high fee levels. Card
scheme rules on cross-border acquiring prevent the commerce sector from
creating efficiencies through the use of centralised acquiring and so keep
costs unnecessarily high.
Europe deserves an electronic payment
system which is open, competitive and offers a cheap basic way to transfer
money within and across national borders. This is the way forward for payments
in Europe.
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The Malta Chamber of SMEs represents over 7,000 members from over 90 different sectors which in their majority are either small or medium sized companies, and such issues like the one we're experiencing right now, it's important to be united. Malta Chamber of SMEs offers a number of different services tailored to its members' individual requirements' and necessities. These range from general services offered to all members to more individual & bespoke services catered for specific requirements.
A membership with Malta Chamber of SMEs will guarantee that you are constantly updated and informed with different opportunities which will directly benefit your business and help you grow. It also entails you to a number of services which in their majority are free of charge and offered exclusively to its members (in their majority all free of charge).
