Visa Europe has been warned by the European Commission that its
multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) may
violate EU’s antitrust rules.

The warning comes in the form of a
“supplementary statement of objections”, which is a formal
procedure part of the broader antitrust investigation started in
March 2008.

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“Visa’s MIFs harm competition between
acquiring banks, inflate the cost of payment card acceptance for
merchants and ultimately increase consumer prices,” said the
Commission.

Visa can now reply in writing, request a
hearing, and get access to the Commission’s case file.

“We are very disappointed that the Commission
has taken such a confrontational approach and was not willing to
find a solution to support investment and innovation in European
payments for the benefit of European consumers and to allow
European payments to compete globally,” said Peter Ayliffe, Visa
Europe’s chief executive.

In response to the Commission’s first
statement of objection, in 2008 Visa offered to cap its MIFs at
0.20%, but the proceeding continued.

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The proceeding follows another similar
initiative undertaken by the Commission against
MasterCard.

MasterCard’s interchange fees were questioned under Article
101 of the Treaty on the functioning of the EU (TFEU), which
prohibits cartels and restrictive business practices.

In May 2012 MasterCard has announced its
intention to appeal to the European Court of Justice, after the
European General Court rejected its argument that interchange fees
were objectively necessary to operate the payments network.