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Card payment: 6 banks fined 3 million euros for excessive fees

2020-12-18T18:22:36.384Z


For the first time, the crackdown on fraud pinpoints establishments that charge too many fees when paying by bank card


More than 2.8 million euros!

This is the total amount of fines imposed by the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) on six French banks that do not comply with the European transparency and pricing rules in force for payments by Bank card.

Main sanctioned bank, BNP Paribas must pay a fine of precisely 1,494,066 euros, the Banque Postale 1,168,162 euros, the Banque Populaire du Grand Ouest 74,446 euros, the Afone bank payment of 58,200 euros, the Regional bank Crédit Agricole Normandie for 48,276 euros and the Federal Bank of Credit mutuel Maine Anjou Basse-Normandie for 35,600 euros.

"This is the very first time that this type of practice has been highlighted and sanctioned", highlights Romain Roussel, chief of staff at the DGCCRF.

Other controls are continuing to guarantee better consumer protection and complete confidence in payments by bank card, ”he adds.

Lack of transparency on prices

During its checks in 2018, the repression of fraud pinned down three types of infringement at these six banking institutions.

First of all, their lack of price transparency with regard to their merchant customers.

The contracts they sign with VSEs and SMEs only indicate "a global commission which, for want of being detailed, does not allow competition with other banking players", notes the expert in the Repression of Fraud.

With regard to their consumer customers this time, the banks are not respecting their obligation to provide visually identifiable debit and / or credit payment cards, that is to say with an easily readable inscription.

And the icing on the cake, the DGCCRF notes that the so-called dual payment cards, these famous two-in-one cards offering the choice between an immediate debit payment or a revolving credit when settling, are subject to commissions. 'excessive interchange.

A commission that pays big

The interchange fee?

This is the amount paid by the merchant's bank to that of the consumer during a bank card transaction.

This commission plays an essential role because it is one of the main sources of remuneration for banks, especially at a time of free cards and fierce competition from new online players.

Concretely, each time you pay for a purchase by card, the merchant's bank pays part of the amount of your transaction to your bank, the same one that issued your bank card and allows you to pay it.

The more card transactions you make, the more your bank collects.

For its part, the merchant's bank re-invoices the commission to its client.

Since 2015, the maximum ceiling of this interchange fee has been regulated at European level in order to avoid any abuse by banks.

“The maximum commission has been set at 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit cards”, specifies the expert from the DGCCRF.

However, during its checks in 2018, the authority noticed that all the banks checked charge 0.3% commission on too many of these dual cards, regardless of the type of payment chosen by the consumer.

"A debit transaction billed at 0.3% instead of 0.2% creates a prejudice for the merchant, often a very small business or an SME, which loses financially", summarizes Romain Roussel.

The difference may seem small, but multiplied by the number of card transactions, the bill quickly becomes steep.

Especially with the crisis, card payments are exploding.

BNP disputes

When questioned, the Postal Bank "takes note of the decision of the DGCCRF relating to the facts observed in 2018. Steps are being taken to comply with the breaches noted", she specifies, insisting that this "sanction only concerns dual cards

(Editor's note, offering to pay by debit or credit),

ie nearly 150,000 bank cards out of a total of 8 million in circulation ”.

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For its part, BNP Paribas "contests the conclusions of the DGCCRF investigation and has appealed to the Administrative Court of Paris".

Source: leparis

All business articles on 2020-12-18

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