European consumers are worried that the draft EU payments legislation could make the use of bank cards more expensive and complicated for them.

According to a poll carried out by Ipsos in 13 European countries on behalf of MasterCard, two in three consumers believe that proposals to cap interchange fees would make it worse for them to use their bank cards.

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Javier Perez, president at MasterCard Europe commented: “Any new legislation on electronic payments should act in the best interest of card users.

“The results suggest that consumers across Europe share these concerns, and believe that the measures on the table are not in their interest”.

According to the results of the survey, 65% of consumers fear that inflexible caps on interchange fees would leave them worse off in terms of using cards.

82% of consumers believe that retailers would not pass on any cost savings from a reduction in their contribution to the costs of the electronic payments system.

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According to the survey, consumers are also critical of another point of the EU legislation under discussion: the break up of the so-called “Honour all Cards Rule”.

A proposed rule in the new legislation would effectively give retailers the right to decide which cards will be accepted or not.

Perez concluded: “At MasterCard, we share the European Commission’s objective of creating an efficient, competitive and innovative payments market.

“However, we are concerned that some of the proposals do not support these goals and will actually harm and inconvenience consumers”.

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