EU charges MasterCard with artificially raising cost of card payments

Brussels: EU antitrust regulators sent MasterCard a charge sheet on Thursday outlining their concerns that the company artificially raises the costs of card payments through its rules on cross-border transactions and fees charged to retailers for receiving payments made with non-EU cards.

“We currently suspect MasterCard is artificially raising the costs of card payments, which would harm consumers and retailers in the EU,” said Margrethe Vestager, EU Competition Commissioner in a statement.