New EU rules on credit card charges will save retailers and consumers billions every year – Hayes

Brian Hayes, MEP for Dublin, today (Tuesday), welcomed the European Parliament’s approval of a Regulation that will cap credit and debit card charges and will lead to huge savings for retailers and consumers.

“This new regulation is good for retailers, it is good for consumers and it is good for competition in Europe. For too long, a lack of regulation has allowed card companies to charge excessive fees to retailers for simple credit or debit card transactions which ultimately get passed onto regular consumers. These unjustifiably high fees only benefit banks and card companies. I am glad that today the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of capping the fees that retailers have to pay to process payments. The reduction of these fees should lead to lower prices for consumers.

“Under the new rules, card-based transaction fees will be capped at 0.2% for debit card payments and 0.3% for credit card payments. It is estimated that the rules could result in approximately €6 billion in annual savings for retailers.

“Concerns have been raised that retailers will not pass on savings to consumers. I believe there is a strong role for the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to ensure proper enforcement and oversight of this regulation, so that consumers see the benefits of reduced fees.

“With these new rules we will now have a level-playing field and the market can no longer be dominated by the big card companies. New innovative payment methods which can offer cheaper fees and ease-of-use will have the freedom to compete fairly with the major card companies.”