Law360, New York (May 24, 2012, 6:15 PM ET) -- MasterCard Inc. lost its bid Thursday to overturn a 2007 European Commission decision banning the company's interchange fees, increasing pressure on Visa Inc. to cut its own credit card transaction charges to appease the bloc's antitrust watchdog.
The European Union's General Court backed the commission's conclusion that the multilateral interchange fees that banks issuing MasterCard-brand cards charge merchants to process transactions inflated the financial institutions' actual costs and thwarted competition.
The court rejected MasterCard's claims that the fees were objectively necessary to run its payment system,...
EU Court Tosses MasterCard Intercharge Fee Appeal
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