OREANDA-NEWS. July 19, 2011. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) had a telephone conference with experts of the European Commission about supporting competition on the market of payment cards. The conference was one of the first events organized under the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding in the field of competition policy, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

FAS Russia’s experts from the Departments for Control over Financial Markets and International Economic Cooperation took part in the conference.

The parties discussed the following issues:

Current problems with competition on the market of payment cards;

The main violations of competition law on the market of payment cards investigated by the European Commission in the past ten years;

Methods of resolving the problems that hinder development of competition on the market of merchant acquiring;

The average cost of merchant acquiring services in the European Union;

Procedures for ascertaining an interchange fee for merchant acquiring.

In their turn, FAS representatives answered the questions raised by their colleagues from the European Commission and shared experience of protecting competition on the market of payment cards.

FAS Russia will continue active cooperation with the European Commission in the field of competition policy.