Mastercard hiking merchant fees for UK online purchases from October

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

They had been capped to 0.3% for credit cards and 0.2% for debit cards by EU law,but now we have left they have decided to increase fees to between 1.15~1.5% because they can:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55796426
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...to-uk-shoppers

The issue is that the European operations of some major US companies such as Amazon and Paypal,are located in Luxemborg,so this has the potential to affect even purchases made in the UK if companies pass the costs on. The UK is one of the bigger purchasers online of goods worldwide. I hope the government steps and tells them to go and do one. Visa,currently haven't said anything - so if they do intend to not increase their fees,I would vote with your pocket and move away from Mastercard.

Edit!!

Also Ayden(the new provider Ebay is using) is Dutch. I wonder if this affects Apple and Google online payments too?

[jimbouk]

Where was the law based that stopped companies charging extra for credit card purchases? If that one still holds then the shops are between a rock and a hard place. Either hike up all prices to cover the difference even when paying with something else, or stop accepting Mastercard altogether.

Mastercard obviously think they can get away with it (from a business perspective). And if there's no longer a law against it...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Where was the law based that stopped companies charging extra for credit card purchases? If that one still holds then the shops are between a rock and a hard place. Either hike up all prices to cover the difference even when paying with something else, or stop accepting Mastercard altogether.

Mastercard obviously think they can get away with it (from a business perspective). And if there's no longer a law against it...

Its really taking the piss what Mastercard are doing. So many international payment providers and platforms will have operations located in one country for a whole region. So UK sellers on Ebay,Amazon,Etsy,etc selling UK made stuff to UK customers,get screwed over too. IIRC,the cap saved around a billion pounds to UK companies and consumers last year.

Maybe Mastercard are vindictively seeking revenge on UK consumers because of this:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/11/uk-c...o-proceed.html

[kalniel]

Ah, inter-region charges and we now class as a different region. We could presumably pass a law banning UK-EU charges but I guess the govt wouldn't want to.

[Spud1]

Either hike up all prices to cover the difference even when paying with something else

This is likely to be what happens imo - particularly with how common Mastercard has become in the UK in the past few years with many banks swapping over from Visa for their debit cards.

It will likely be wrapped up in the general "Brexit" price increases we're already seeing though, once things settle down a little later in the year, so we may not notice the impact of this specific change.

[Ttaskmaster]

Its really taking the [CENSORED] what Mastercard are doing.

Language, please...

But yes, there's a lot of urine extraction happening. Tax and duty to be paid, often in addition to the country of origin's own taxations, with admin and handling fees added before said taxes by every entity even slightly involved in the shipping stage...

At this rate it'll be cheaper to drive to a factory in Slovenia and get your stuff direct. I'd take my superyacht but, you know, mooring space is so limited out that way...