Ten years after the Interchange Fee Regulation, time to tackle new wholesale price increases

On 8 June 2015, the EU’s Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR) entered into force, effectively capping a key part of the wholesale price of payments, to the benefit of EU businesses and consumers. Ten years later, International Card Schemes (ICS) have found new ways to unfairly increase wholesale costs to the European payments ecosystem. Independent Retail Europe, EACT, Ecommerce Europe, EDPIA, and EuroCommerce therefore urge Europe to act by reviewing the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR), as recently called for by Parliament, to the current reality. The IFR’s aim of reducing the wholesale cost of digital payments and fostering more competition in EU payments is being undermined and should be updated to impose price controls on scheme fees.