EU: MasterCard wins access to EC interchange fee docs

A General Court ruling announced Tuesday has said that the European Commission was wrong to deny MasterCard access to documents related to a study on the cost of using bank cards, a ruling that some say is likely to have broader implications in future competition cases in transparency disputes.

Reports say the General Court found that the Commission could not claim that the documents were related to an antitrust investigation. It was a win for MasterCard as the credit card conglomerate faces a larger ruling by the European Court of Justice later this week as it fights proposed caps on cross-boarder interchange fees as proposed by the Commission.

European Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the Commission would fully examine Tuesday’s decision and the consequences it would have for granting or denying access to its documents. The regulator will now have to adopt a decision for a procedure to do so that is in in line with the General Court’s order.

The Commission said that the full report involving the documents in question, which studies the cost burden on retailers that accept payment by card or cash, will likely be released in the coming weeks. The Commission could appeal the ruling to the EU Court of Justice.

The EU’s highest court is set to determine Thursday the fate of MasterCard’s challenge to a 2007 ruling that ordered the credit card company to limit its cross-boarder interchange fees, which were found to harm competition.

Full content: Bloomberg

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