Visa, the world’s biggest credit card group, has threatened to take the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to court if the competition watchdog presses ahead with plans to force a reduction in its fees.
The OFT, which published a “statement of objections” to Visa’s multilateral interchange fee last October, wants Visa to cut the fees that its member banks charge for processing retail transactions. OFT officials say that the fees are passed on to retailers and result in higher prices. The watchdog is expected to refer Visa to the Competition Commission.
Marc Temmerman, executive vice-president for external relations at Visa Europe, vowed to fight such a move.
He pointed to an agrement reached with the European Commission in 2002, by which Visa had already undertaken to cut the fee paid between banks for processing a retail transaction from 0.8 per cent to 0.7 per cent by the end of next year.