Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-000413/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Engin Eroglu (Renew)
The Regulation on Interchange Fees (Regulation (EU) 2015/751) has reduced consumer card fees and made them more transparent. Commercial cards are, however, excluded from its scope. Take up of commercial cards was initially low and chiefly limited to large companies.
Their share in the EU market has since been increasing, including for transactions involving SMEs. According to the available information, commercial cards are used for 70-80% of payments in countries such as Italy, Croatia and Romania, and for 50% in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal and Spain. In Austria, their share rose from 3.5% (2021) to 20% (2023).
While fees for consumer cards lie at between 0.10% and 0.30%, they can reach as much as 2.30% for commercial cards.
Both the holders of the credit cards (often the self-employed or micro-enterprises) and the payees are often unaware that these are commercial cards, although this fact has a huge impact on the latter’s costs.
- 1.Is the Commission aware of this issue?
- 2.To what extent does the Commission regard this asymmetry in the payment procedure to be an unfair information disadvantage for traders, since in practice while it is not they who decide on the method of payment their cost structure is heavily affected?
- 3.Is the Commission considering placing a limit on credit card fees for commercial cards used by the self-employed or micro-enterprises?
Submitted: 29.1.2025