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Title: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: Hydrogen on January 25, 2019, 01:08:52 PM Quote The EU has fined Mastercard €570 million for limiting competition between banks offering cheaper payment fees. The European Commission said Mastercard's actions harmed consumers and retailers in the bloc. The European Commission on Tuesday fined Mastercard €570 million ($648 million) for preventing retailers from looking for better card payment terms at banks around Europe. The Commission, which monitors competition, said that Mastercard's rules prior to 2015 forced retailers to pay certain bank fees in the country they are located rather than let them shop around. Mastercard, which also controls the Maestro brand, is the second-largest credit card program in Europe. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that "By preventing merchants from shopping around for better conditions offered by banks in other member states, Mastercard's rules artificially raised the costs of card payments, harming consumers and retailers in the EU." A breach of anti-trust rules When a customer pays a retailer with a credit card, the store's bank pays a fee to the cardholder's bank. The retailer's bank then passes this fee on to the store, which increases costs for customers. Prior to 2015, the level of these "interchange fees" varied widely across Europe, but Mastercard's rules at the time required banks receiving card payments to apply the fee set in their home country. "This led to higher prices for retailers and consumers, to limited cross-border competition and to an artificial segmentation of the single market," the EU Commission said. "On this basis, the Commission concluded that Mastercard's rules prevented retailers from benefiting from lower fees and restricted competition between banks cross border, in breach of EU anti-trust rules," the Commission added. The Commission said the infringement ended after Mastercard changed its rules following the introduction of the Interchange Fee Regulation. The fine would have been higher, but Brussels reduced the amount by 10 percent to thank Mastercard for cooperating. https://www.dw.com/en/eu-fines-mastercard-more-than-half-a-billion-euros/a-47179421 .... There could be an interesting dynamic present. The united states didn't fine monsanto for cancer cases when it was based in the USA. It was only after monsanto was bought by bayer which is based out of germany that monsanto was hit with huge fines for cancer cases. At the same time we see the EU proposing fines aimed @ many large US businesses like google and now mastercard. We could be witnessing the beginnings of trade disputes with rising deficits and governments becoming more desperate for money. , If governments continue to become desperate for cash, the day may soon come when they will turn to alternative sources of revenue like bitcoin and crypto. If fiat money always returns to its intrinsic value of zero, as some say, bitcoin and gold could be the only thing's left if hyperinflation rears its ugly head. Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: LeGaulois on January 25, 2019, 04:37:16 PM Quote ....If governments continue to become desperate for cash... You wanted to say "if governments continue to become more strict I don't think it's fair how the big firms are cheating millions by evading their taxes for exemple. Surely I will have fewer taxes to pay if everyone is fair (not cheating,etc) because I am paying for the cheaters. Europe is currently waking up against those 'Pro-taxes-evasion' to make the system fair for everyone, no matter if you are citizens, entrepreneurs. Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: aad140386 on January 25, 2019, 05:19:07 PM The point is not that there is not enough money in the EU, but that there is a hidden trade war between the EU and the USA. And it has just begun. And it started it just the United States. Remember the scandal with VW, the increase in duties on various goods from the EU, sanctions against companies that cooperate with Iran or Russia. Europeans are simply trying to respond to attacks on the European economy by the United States. This is a common trade war. How it will end is difficult to imagine, but the world is changing rapidly. And the US will find it increasingly difficult to hold leadership in the world. The era of the world gendarme is coming to an end.
Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: HODL2090 on January 25, 2019, 05:32:31 PM If fiat money always returns to its intrinsic value of zero, as some say, bitcoin and gold could be the only thing's left if hyperinflation rears its ugly head. It's unlikely that fiat currencies drop to zero value, except the government rescinds it's backing and it no longer is a legal tender, the chances of this happening globally is very slim. Fiat does not have to die for bitcoin to rise. Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: snipie on January 25, 2019, 07:15:08 PM The point is not that there is not enough money in the EU, but that there is a hidden trade war between the EU and the USA. And it has just begun. And it started it just the United States. Remember the scandal with VW, the increase in duties on various goods from the EU, sanctions against companies that cooperate with Iran or Russia. Europeans are simply trying to respond to attacks on the European economy by the United States. This is a common trade war. How it will end is difficult to imagine, but the world is changing rapidly. And the US will find it increasingly difficult to hold leadership in the world. The era of the world gendarme is coming to an end. Yes it can be related to a trade war in a way or another but the European have their reason for fining Mastercard. After all, with bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency this problem will not take a place from the beginning since the transaction fees are already known and no need to banks or any other third party. Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: stompix on January 25, 2019, 07:58:19 PM We could be witnessing the beginnings of trade disputes with rising deficits and governments becoming more desperate for money. If governments continue to become desperate for cash, the day may soon come when they will turn to alternative sources of revenue like bitcoin and crypto. It has nothing to do with the trade war or with the revenue. The whole thing started more than 6 years ago: Quote The financial penalty flows from an anti-trust investigation which kicked off in April 2013 and concluded that Mastercard's rules prevented retailers from benefiting from lower fees and restricted competition between banks cross border, in breach of EU antitrust rules. The infringement ended when Mastercard amended its rules in view of the entry into force on new regulations of interchange fee caps in December 2015. It took them 6 years of lawsuits and appeals since the investigation and more than 4 years after Mastercard changed their rules admitting the fault to slap them with a fine that is 10 times lower than the initial number. If they would have been desperate for money they wouldn't have given them this discount. Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: tinkerr100 on January 25, 2019, 08:48:12 PM Hmm, it would seem that such a huge company, the second largest in its sphere. And yet the human factor, I mean greed, played a role. That paid for everything. :(
Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: Crypdon on January 25, 2019, 09:02:26 PM These things happen when payments are done hidden in the offices of banks. Bitcoin payments are open, and if the public wallets are known then it will all be even more transparent to the people.
Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: deisik on January 26, 2019, 12:10:05 PM Mastercard Weren't Bitcoin miners doing essentially the same thing in late 2017? Yes it can be related to a trade war in a way or another but the European have their reason for fining Mastercard. After all, with bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency this problem will not take a place from the beginning since the transaction fees are already known and no need to banks or any other third party. Hmm, it doesn't look like this Well, while it doesn't look quite like this exactly, we still had to pay fees like 50 dollars per transaction by the end of 2017. But we don't have the European Commission (which is basically the EU government) to fine miners for abusing their "competitive advantage" (or monopolistic position, if you please). We kinda had to bite the bullet. Yeah, now we have Lightning Network but we no longer have high prices to make miners pay for the pain we had to endure thanks to them not so long ago Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: davis196 on January 26, 2019, 01:14:06 PM If the governments are desperate for cash,they will command their central banks to print more.
Crypto is not a part of that equation.However,I agree that USA and EU both want to punish foreign corporations.This is a double standart,but nobody cares.... Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: Kiir on January 26, 2019, 01:15:25 PM And then, totally by accident ;D ;D :
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/33257/mastercard-takes-on-visa-in-tussle-over-earthport Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: kolesozw on January 27, 2019, 12:40:44 AM Well, Mastercard deserve it for sure!
While Revolut are no longer accepting transfers from Bitcoin exchanges, they are offering ultra low fees on FX exchanges and CC payments. With Transferwise they proved that it's possible not to drain all the blood of your clients in fees while my local bank still wants 3.5% on FX + 3 EUR on ATM withdraw from another country. Title: Re: EU fines Mastercard more than half a billion euros Post by: timerland on January 27, 2019, 06:54:08 AM Centralized payment processors and networks have one goal in mind, which is to charge as much as they can for their services. That's why we see this case with Mastercard essentially blocking off competition, and why other money remittance services are so expensive.
Decentralized forms of payment like bitcoin doesn't have this problem. There is no central entity that is looking to make money, and every transaction is based off a flat rate regardless of the size (in terms of monetary value). At the end of the day, this is one of the reasons why I'd rather use a system like bitcoin, rather than the services provided by traditional banking networks. Quote We could be witnessing the beginnings of trade disputes with rising deficits and governments becoming more desperate for money. If governments continue to become desperate for cash, the day may soon come when they will turn to alternative sources of revenue like bitcoin and crypto. If fiat money always returns to its intrinsic value of zero, as some say, bitcoin and gold could be the only thing's left if hyperinflation rears its ugly head. You're right. As government spending deficit increases, so will their desire to have these types of fines against large corporations. And yes, if this continues, then we could see governments putting out regulation for bitcoin and other cryptos because they want to have revenue from this as well. |