Mastercard fined a whopping £504m for anti-competitive behaviour

Mastercard has been fined £504m by the European Commission for anti-competitive behaviour, they said that Mastercard prevented retailers from being able to shop around for better deals.

Mastercard said in a statement, “This decision relates to historic practices only, covers a limited period of time of less than two-years and will not require any modification of Mastercard’s current business practices.”

Margrethe Vestager, the Commissioner of the European Commission said, “European consumers use payment cards every day, when they buy food or clothes or make purchases online.

“By preventing merchants from shopping around for better conditions offered by banks in other member states, Mastercard’s rules artificially raised the cost of card payments, harming consumers and retailers in the EU.”