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Visa Europe hopes by the end of the year to resolve its interchange dispute with European Union competition authorities, according to comments from Peter Ayliffe, Visa Europe CEO. Ayliffe made the comments to reporters in Brussels and a Visa Europe spokesperson confirmed them to CardLine Global. Last April, Ayliffe said he expects the card organization to reach a "negotiated settlement" with European regulators over charges that the card organization's policies violate antitrust rules (CardLine Global, 3 April). EU competition authorities are investigating the interchange rates Visa applies to card transactions in Europe and the card organization's rule that merchants must accept all Visa-branded cards despite the issuer or type of transaction. European authorities have ruled that similar interchange rates MasterCard Worldwide imposed violate antitrust rules. MasterCard has suspended applying cross-border interchange while it appeals the decision. Visa imposes a similar rate of 0.7% of the sale, the spokesperson says, unable to say how many transactions the rate affects. European competition authorities would not comment on Ayliffe's statement. "If an infringement of the antitrust rules by Visa were found, a settlement decision would be one possible outcome, as would be fines [and/or] a requirement to change business practices," a spokesperson for the European competition authorities tells CardLine Global.
