MA MasterCard Incorporated

(Adds Mastercard's response)

 
   By Donato Paolo Mancini 
 

European antitrust authorities fined Mastercard Inc. (MA) EUR570 million ($648 million) for obstructing merchants' access to cross-border card-payment services, the European Commission said Tuesday.

The fine is for limiting the possibility for merchants to benefit from better conditions offered by banks established elsewhere in the single market, the EU said.

"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," Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said.

Mastercard cooperated with the EU by acknowledging the facts and the infringements of EU competition rules, the EU said. In return for this, the EU granted the company a 10% fine reduction.

Mastercard said that the EU's decision puts an end to a legacy investigation into rules in place until 2015. It won't require any modification to any of the company's current business practices, it noted. The fine is consistent with the amount the company said would be taken as a charge in the fourth quarter of 2018, Mastercard said.

Write to Donato Paolo Mancini at donatopaolo.mancini@dowjones.com; @donatopmancini

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 22, 2019 06:29 ET (11:29 GMT)

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