Russian retailers complained about Visa and MasterCard in FAS
The largest Russian retailers represented by the Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Household and Computer Equipment (RATEK) complained about the Visa and MasterCard payment systems to the Federal Antimonopoly Service, reports TASS . The reason for the complaint was the high, in the opinion of retailers, the cost of acquiring , namely, the excessive rate of the interbank commission. Such organizations as Opora Rossii, AKORT and AKIT joined the complaint.
The commission of payment systems for non-cash payments on plastic cards ranges from 1.4% for the largest organizations to 2% for all others. For payments made on the Internet, the commission rises to 1.6-3.5% per transaction. At the same time, non-cash transactions through plastic cards account for 29% of all payments made in the Russian Federation.
Retailers claim that the position of the Visa and MasterCard payment systems hinders the widespread introduction of non-cash payments and, accordingly, the whitening of cash flows. The minimum commission of 1.4-1.6% can be received only by companies with multi-billion turnover, while the rest work at a rate of 2-3.5%. According to RATEK, online shopping and small businesses, for which the commission of payment systems is higher, suffer primarily from this policy of Visa and MasterCard. In this case, service rates may differ for the same bank card, depending on the type of product sold.
“When paying with a simple debit card with a Mastercard chip of food products, the interbank commission amounts to 1.3%, when paying for gasoline - 1.2%, when paying for travel agency services 1%. The highest tariffs are set for retailers selling non-food items. So, when paying for clothes, household appliances or electronics, the interbank commission is 1.6%, ”the RATEK complaint states.
As an argument, an approach to pricing for acquiring in Europe and Australia is given. There the commission rate is 0.2% for servicing debit cards and 0.3% for credit.
At the end of November, it was reported that FAS will check the pricing for acquiring by Visa and MasterCard, as dominant organizations in the market. The reason for this was the statement of the organization Opora Rossii, which pointed to an unacceptably high rate for acquiring for small business in the amount of 2.5%.
RATEK includes such Russian retailers as M.Video, Eldorado and Media Markt Saturn, as well as major technology companies represented by Google, Samsung, Apple and Intel. In total, about 60 organizations are members of RATEK.