Mastercard is facing a € 570 ##m ( $ 650 m ) fine for breaching EU antitrust rules on cross - border payments . The European Commission has bashed Mastercard with a EUR570 million fine for obstructing merchant access to low-cost cross-border payment services. An investigation by the European Commission concluded that due to Mastercard ’s rules requiring banks to apply the interchange fees of the retailer ’s country of location , retailers were unable to benefit from lower fees offered by a bank in another EU member state , thus restricting competition and hiking the cost of card payments .
Mastercard is facing a € 570 ##m ( $ 650 m ) fine for breaching EU antitrust rules on cross - border payments . An investigation by the European Commission concluded that due to Mastercard ’s rules requiring banks to apply the interchange fees of the retailer ’s country of location , retailers were unable to benefit from lower fees offered by a bank in another EU member state , thus restricting competition and hiking the cost of card payments .