Card giants Visa and MasterCard have come to an agreement with the French competition authority to cut card fees in the country by almost half.
The French Competition Authority announced the deal after pressure from European Commission that banks and payment firms limit the fees they charge on card payments.
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As a result of the deal both Visa and MasterCard will be capped at charging merchants a maximum of 0.28% of the total cost of the transaction to process a payment.
This amounts to a 49% reduction on MasterCard’s current average and a 44% fall on Visa’s charge.
According to The French Competiton Authority the card companies will also reduce cash-machine fees to 0.55 euros ($0.74) per withdrawal from 0.75 and 0.60 respectively.
The French banks have been criticised by both the French banking watchdog and the EU over their interbank fees, which are among the highest in Europe.
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