EuroCommerce, an intervenor in the appeal loged by Mastercard with the European Court of Justice, has lodged a new complaint against Visa Europe claiming that its charges to retailers are an infringement of European competition law.

EuroCommerce argues that fees charged to retailers by Visa and its member banks exactly mirror the fees imposed by Mastercard, which led the European Commission to rule against it in December 2007, amd calls for the same “robust decision” to be applied against Visa.

Xavier Durieu, secretary general of EuroCommerce, says: “The Visa intercahnge fee procedure is completely unfair. Retailers are foreced to pay for a range of services from which they do not benefit. Bank rates are the only services whiuch retailers, even the largest ones, are not able to negotiate.”

Durieu expressed confidence that the European Commission would deal with the new case in the same manner that iy dealt with Mastercard: “In the end, all consumers will benefit from a better fucntioning market,” he said.