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Antitrust: Commission prohibits MasterCard's intra-EEA
Multilateral Interchange Fees – frequently asked questions
Commission Européenne - MEMO/07/590   19/12/2007  Autres langues
disponibles: aucune   Brussels, 19th December 2007   (see also
IP/07/1959)   What are interchange fees?  Interchange fees are
charged by a cardholder's bank (the issuing bank) to a
merchant's bank (the acquiring bank) for each sales transaction
at a merchant outlet with a payment card.  Interchange fees are
either agreed bilaterally, between issuing and acquiring banks,
or multilaterally, by means of a decision binding all banks
participating in a payment card scheme. Industry refers to these
multilateral interchange fees as "MIF". A MIF can be a
percentage, a flat fee or a combined fee (percentage and flat
fee).  When a cardholder uses a payment card to buy from a
merchant, the merchant receives from the acquiring bank the
retail price less a merchant service charge, a large