PAYMENT CARD INTERCHANGE FEES

That this House notes that in 2007 the charges imposed on UK retailers for the processing of credit and debit card payments from customers in other EU countries were declared anti-competitive and unlawful by the European Commission; welcomes the recent ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), following an appeal by MasterCard, that this decision should be upheld; further notes that evidence from the British Retail Consortium's recent Cost of Collection Survey shows that fees levied on domestic card transactions are also unjustifiably high; believes these charges are a tax on retailers and shoppers; and calls on the UK competition authority to consider fully what the implications of the ECJ ruling are for the UK market.