Federal Administrative Court backs Comco decision: Visa cannot increase interchange fees for now

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Credit card company Visa cannot set the fees charged to merchants on debit cards to be higher than those foreseen by the Competition Commission (Comco). The Federal Administrative Court rejected the injunction on Tuesday. So Comco supported the decision.

At the end of 2023, Comco launched an investigation into Visa’s alleged interchange fees. Visa wanted to increase this fee, which flows from the merchant to the bank where the card is issued for debit card transactions, after reducing it to EU levels. The Comco Secretariat found this to be inappropriate.

Visa then asked ComCo to declare that the higher fee was allowed until the investigation was completed. Comco refused on the grounds that such a step would violate antitrust law.

Companies must assume the risk of action themselves

Visa responded to this interim decision in St. He appealed at the Federal Administrative Court in St. Gallen. As the court explained, Visa’s request to ComCo was merely an attempt to avoid sanctions during the investigation.

However, exemption from sanctions for one’s own benefit is against the Cartel Law. This situation requires companies to bear the risk of sanctions. The administrative court also ruled that the Comco Secretariat’s preliminary competition assessment provided sufficient legal certainty.

The Federal Administrative Court’s decision is not good news for Swiss merchants, Visa wrote in a reaction message on Tuesday evening. Visa reduced interchange fees for bank payments to a level corresponding to that of the EU in July last year. However, Swiss traders could not fully benefit from this due to legal uncertainty. (SDA/month)

Source :Blick