UOKiK accepts retailers’ argument

The Office for Consumer and Competition Protection (UOKiK) has decided to accept the arguments of The Polish Organisation of Commerce and Distribution (POHiD), which, five years ago, accused a group of banks of an illegal agreement to keep interchange fees for paying with Visa and MasterCard cards at stores, at a specified, high level. The UOKiK has fined 20 banks an aggregate sum of PLN 164m (€42m).

The UOKiK has stated that the rate was set by a group of banks to inflate profits and was not based on the real costs of the maintenance and development of the payment system. The Office ordered the immediate abolition of the interchange fees by all banks, in both the Visa and MasterCard systems. In the UOKiK’s opinion, non-cash payments should be cleared in accordance with the nominal value of a purchase with no interchange fee deducted.

The decision issued by the UOKiK is not final; banks have the right to appeal to the Consumer and Competition Protection Court.

The retail chains claimed that if the interchange fees had been lower, more retail outlets would have been able to install POS terminals and accept non-cash payments. The POHiD also claimed that interchange fees in Poland (1-2% of the transaction value) were among the highest in Europe. The setting of interchange fees has also been questioned in some countries such as the UK, Italy and Spain. Furthermore, no interchange fee is charged in others, such as Denmark, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands.