Europese Commissie onderzoekt verdeling van de markt in pinpassen tussen negen Franse banken (en)

The Commission has sent a "statement of objections" to nine major banks and to Groupement des Cartes Bancaires "CB". The objections relate to a secret agreement on bank payment cards by means of which nine banks, with the help of Groupement des Cartes Bancaires, shared out the market for the issuance of CB cards in France in order to restrict competition from new entrants, such as the banking arms of large retailers and certain small and medium-sized banks, including foreign banks. In the Commission's view, the agreement severely limits the scope for lower CB card prices and technical innovation.

The Commission sent its statement of objections to Groupement des Cartes Bancaires (GCB) and to the following banks, which are all members of its Board of Directors: BNP-Paribas, Caisses d'Epargne, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel, CIC, Crédit Lyonnais, La Poste, Natexis Banques Populaires and Société Générale.

GCB is a groupement d'intérêt économique (economic interest grouping) under French law which manages the French payment card system (CB cards, but also Visa and MasterCard cards issued in France). It comprises some 155 banks.

The Commission's statement of objections in no way challenges the legitimacy of GCB as the joint and effective operator of the CB card payment system in France.

In the Commission's view, the agreement prevents new entrants from offering consumers CB cards at a lower price and restricts technical innovation by limiting the issuance of CB cards with new functions.

Start of the investigation

At the end of 2002, GCB notified the Commission, on behalf of all its members, of the introduction of new, highly complex charges payable to GCB by banks issuing CB cards. GCB claimed that the purpose of the new rules was to enhance the acquisition function^[1] within the CB system. Under the new rules, a "mechanism for regulating the acquisition function" (Merfa) was introduced and membership fees were increased.

The Commission rapidly formed the view that the notified measures stemmed from a secret, anticompetitive agreement designed to foreclose the market to new entrants. Before they were compelled to change their plans, new entrants had begun offering cheaper cards with new functions. For example, one new entrant was offering an international CB Visa card for €25 a year, compared with the average of €41 charged by the nine banks party to the agreement.

During unannounced inspections carried out in May 2003 on the premises of GCB and of certain banks party to the agreement, the Commission found a number of documents that provided evidence of a secret agreement designed to prevent competition on a coordinated basis. A meeting report, for example, stated: "OK on blocking new entrants" whereas another document stated: "we have to introduce issuing charges ".

The tariffs adopted by the GCB forced the new entrants to scale down their card issuing projects considerably. This agreement increased their costs by up to €23 per card and per year and this is passed on to consumers.

Furthermore not only are the nine banks party to the agreement spared the new charges, but they benefit from them, since the charges paid by new entrants accrue to them.

The statement of objections sets out the Commission's preliminary position on the infringements of the competition rules. The addressees have three months in which to reply and to request a hearing.

^[1] Note: Acquisition consists in banks having CB cards accepted by traders as a means of payment and in making automatic teller machines (ATM) available to cardholders.