The European Commission said on Tuesday it had fined Mastercard
"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," European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
The fine is the latest in a series of actions over the past decade that the Commission, acting as the antitrust regulator for the 28-member European Union, has taken to reduce card fees for merchants.
It has, for example, taken decisions to make legally binding commitments by Visa Europe to cap the levels of interchange fees for all debit and credit card transactions within the European Economic Area.
