BRUSSELS, Belgium—Visa and Mastercard will extend the caps on tourist card fees that were agreed five years ago with EU antitrust regulators for another five years to 2029, the European Commission announced.
Visa and Mastercard in 2019 agreed to a 0.2% fee cap on non-E.U. debit card payments carried out in shops, and a 0.3% fee limit on credit card payments to settle an E.U. antitrust investigation and avoid hefty fines, Reuters reported.
The fee caps are due to end in November of this year. The move followed a long-running investigation by the E.U. competition enforcer triggered by a 1997 complaint by business lobby EuroCommerce, Reuters said.
Voluntary Agreement
The Commission, which acts as the E.U. antitrust watchdog, said the two companies volunteered to continue the fee caps beyond 2024, according to Reuters.
"Inter-regional interchange fees for debit and credit card transactions under these schemes will remain capped for another five years until November 2029," the Commission said in a statement.