Article 2
This Decision is addressed to: Visa International Service Association European Union region 99 Kensington High Street London W8 5TE United Kingdom. Done at Brussels, 9 August 2001. For the Commission Mario Monti Member of the Commission (1) See also OJ C 316, 10.11.2001. (2) OJ 13, 21.2.1962, p. 204/62. (3) OJ L 148, 15.6.1999, p. 5. (4) OJ C 293, 14.10.2000, p. 18. (5) The Visa multilateral interchange fee is a fee per payment transaction that has to be paid according to the Visa rules between the two banks involved in a Visa card payment. Currently, it is paid by the merchant's bank to the cardholder's bank. (6) The core of the Eurocommerce complaint is the interchange fee in, inter alia, the Visa International payment card rules. This provision is still under examination and is not the subject of the present decision. (7) The Visa membership provisions are still under examination in the context of a complaint by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (case Comp/37.860) and not the subject of the present decision. (8) The following Member States have a Visa group member: Austria (Visa Austria), Belgium (Visa Belgium), Denmark (PBS), Finland (Luottokunta/Kreditlag), France (Groupement Carte Bleue), Luxembourg (VisaLux), Spain (Sistema 4B and Visa España) and Sweden (Visa Sweden Association). (9) Luottokunta in Finland. (10) "Card acquiring" involves contracting retail merchants for payment processing and other services related to Visa card acceptance. (11) The exceptions being Luottokunta, PBS and VisaLux. (12) Except VisaLux in Luxembourg and Sistema 4B in Spain. (13) [business secret]. (14) [business secret]. (15) [business secret]. (16) [business secret]. (17) [business secret]. (18) [business secret]. (19) [business secret]. (20) [business secret]. (21) [business secret]. (22) [business secret]. (23) [business secret]. (24) OJ C 293, 14.10.2000, p. 18. (25) For example, credit cards, deferred debit cards (also known as charge cards), direct debit cards, electronic purses, proprietary cards (also known as store cards or own label cards), whether national or international cards. (26) For example, eurocheques, traveller's cheques, national cheques. (27) Decision of 30 June 1993 in Case IV/M.350 WestLB/Thomas Cook which states in paragraph 9 that "...it would seem that traveller's cheques to a certain degree are in competition with other methods of payment, such as, e.g. credit cards and eurocheques." Commission Decision 85/77/EEC in Case IV/30.717 - Uniform eurocheques (OJ L 35, 7.2.1985, p. 43) which states in recital 41 that a person travelling to a foreign country generally has a choice between several means of payment, such as cash, traveller's cheques, postal payment orders, credit cards, ATM cards and eurocheques. (28) Nabanco Bancard Corporation v Visa USA (596 F. Supp.1231 (S.D. Fla. 1980)) affid 770 F 2d 592 (11th Cir. 1986) and South Trust Corporation v Plus System (71.219 (N.D. Ala. 1995)). (29) In a four-party payment card system such as Visa, both merchants (in their capacity as clients of the acquiring services) and cardholders (in their capacity as clients of the issuing services) are to be considered as consumers, and in order to determine which products are sufficiently substitutable to Visa cards, both the position of merchants and cardholders will have to be taken into account. (30) It is to be noted in this regard that the Commission decisions referred to by Visa, apart from the fact that they are rather old and do not take into account the latest developments in the payment sector, relate to substitutability of other means of payment to cheques and not the other way around. Moreover, the Commission in both decisions left the exact definition of the relevant market open. (31) At the moment eurocheques written in euro are guaranteed up to a maximum of EUR 170. As from 1 January 2002 the guarantee functionality of the eurocheque product will be abolished. (32) See for example Commission Decision 96/454/EC - Banque Nationale de Paris/Dresdner Bank in Case IV/34.607 (OJ L 188, 27.7.1996, p. 37), in which the Commission divided banking and other financial services into three major categories: retail banking services, wholsesale banking services for undertakings and legal entities and activities related to financial markets. As regard the relevant geographical markets, the Commission concluded that retail banking activities (under which payment cards fall) are national. (33) Payment cards in Europe 1997, Retail Banking Research Ltd, International Overview p. 33, figure 29. (34) Moreover, it has to be kept in mind that cards are not available on a large scale in all Member States. (35) Retail Banking Research Ltd, Payment cards in Europe, 1997. (36) See tables 1 to 3. (37) ITM research on the effects of the abolition of the NDR in the Netherlands (March 2000) and IMA research on the effects of the abolition of the NDR in Sweden (February 2000). (38) OJ L 126, 26.5.2000, p. 1. This Directive repealed, inter alia, Second Council Directive 89/646/EEC of 15 December 1989 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions and amending Directive 77/780/EEC (OJ L 386, 30.12.1989, p. 1). (39) Except as between Ireland and the United Kingdom which is considered by Visa as a single territory. (40) See, for example, Case 42/84 Remia v Commission [1985] ECR 2545, paragraph 22. (41) See, for example, Case C-250/92 Gøttrup-Klim Grovvareforeninger v Dansk Landbrugs Grovvareselskab AmbA [1994] ECR I-5641, paragraph 54. (42) See, for example, Case C-219/95 Ferriere Nord v Commission [1997] ECR I-4411-19 and Joined Cases C-215/96 and 216/96, Bagnasco [1999] ECR I-135).