Regulation (EU) 2015/751 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 on interchange fees for card-based payment transactions, published in the Official Journal of the European Union last 19 May, entered into force on 8 June.
The Regulation is designed to further competition and integration of the European market for payments cards. To this end, as of 9 December 2015, interchange fees will be capped at 0.3 per cent of the individual transaction value for consumer credit cards and at 0.2 per cent for consumer debit and prepaid cards, although member states have the option of applying the 0.2 per cent cap to payment card schemes (annual weighted average of all transactions) rather than to each individual payment transaction.
The Regulation also lays down common technical and business requirements to increase the sector’s harmonization and ensure the security, efficiency and competitiveness of electronic payments, to the benefit of merchants and consumers. With this in mind, the potential for intermediaries to oblige merchants to accept all categories of cards will be restricted and steps taken to ensure that payment card schemes and processing entities are independent in terms of accounting, organization and governance, and that transparent conditions are applied to merchants.
