The EU Interchange Fee Regulation caps fees for covered consumer-card transactions at rates of 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit. Scheme separation, co-badging and merchant choice rules sit alongside the caps, shaping the economics and operation of card acceptance within its scope.
TL;DR:
- Covered consumer interchange is capped at 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit.
- Also addresses scheme-processing separation, co-badging, choice and merchant information.
- Scope and domestic options matter; interchange is only one part of merchant acceptance costs.
Summary
The fee component regulated by the caps
Regulation (EU) 2015/751 regulates interchange, the fee exchanged between the issuing and acquiring sides of a card transaction. For covered consumer cards, the principal caps are 0.2% of transaction value for debit and 0.3% for credit. The debit framework contains specific domestic options, and Member States can impose lower limits in the circumstances provided. Interchange should be separated from acquiring, processing and other services that together make up a merchant's total acceptance charge.
Scope determines which transactions qualify
The cap provisions are not universal rules for every card payment. The legal analysis includes where the relevant providers are located, whether the card is a consumer or commercial product and the structure of the scheme. Three-party arrangements have specific treatment, including circumstances in which licensing or other arrangements bring them within four-party treatment. A transaction therefore needs to be classified before a headline cap is applied; the presence of a familiar network logo is not enough.
Business rules and the allocation of choice
The Regulation also addresses practices that can restrict competition beyond the level of a fee. Its subjects include separation of scheme and processing functions, co-badging and payment-application choice, merchant information and rules affecting steering or selective acceptance. These provisions concern who can make decisions in the acceptance chain. They are relevant when one card or device supports several applications, or when a merchant needs to understand the categories and charges attached to the cards it accepts.
What a merchant price can and cannot show
A merchant service charge can exceed the interchange cap because it includes other components. Conversely, an acceptable total price does not settle whether a scheme's business rules comply with the Regulation. Assessment follows the particular fee or restriction at issue, the card category and the transaction's geographical scope. This makes the instrument relevant both to pricing analysis and to the design of acceptance choices, while keeping it distinct from separate PSD2 rules on payment-service conduct and surcharging.
Keywords
- EU interchange
- debit caps
- credit cards
- merchant choice
- co-badging
- application selection
- processing separation
- fee transparency
- consumer transactions
- acceptance costs