Dutch hotels, shops, and restaurants that serve customers from outside the European Union must pay a portion of the bill to Visa or Mastercard if the customer pays with such a card. The MIFC Foundation believes this is unjustified and is therefore taking the matter to court.
From 1992, Dutch companies paid up to 2 percent of the amounts received to Visa or Mastercard. That percentage applied to bills paid by tourists or business people from outside the European Union.
The Multilateral Interchange Fees Claims (MIFC) Foundation is filing lawsuits against Visa and Mastercard. The compensation for Dutch entrepreneurs could run into the millions, the foundation expects.
The foundation cites objections from the European Commission regarding the high fees from 2015 and 2017. Mastercard was fined 570 million euros for this. Visa was also penalized at the time.
Two years later, Visa and Mastercard lowered their transaction costs. “This means that Dutch retailers, catering companies, and other entrepreneurs who have accepted interregional transactions with credit cards from Visa and Mastercard have overpaid since 1992,” says Ellen Soerjatin of the MIFC Foundation.
Mastercard Settled for Millions in the UK
The concerns behind the payment cards themselves determine the amount of their transaction costs. By keeping these “artificially high,” companies structurally paid too much, says Soerjatin. She would prefer that the fees for international payments be abolished. Now they are a maximum of 0.3 percent, although the percentage may be higher for online payments.
Entrepreneurs can request compensation through the two collective actions against the payment companies. A judge will determine the amount of any compensation.
A similar case was completed in the United Kingdom last year. At that time, Mastercard settled for 200 million pounds (more than 241 million euros). Millions of Britons had joined the case against the payment company.