On December 15, 2010, the Competition Bureau (the Bureau) filed an application with the Competition Tribunal seeking the abolition of certain rules that VISA and MasterCard impose on merchants who accept their credit cards.
The Bureau is focusing on two of these rules. The first prohibits merchants from charging additional fees to consumers who pay with one of their cards. The second requires merchants to accept all credit cards offered by the card issuer (the "Accept all cards rule"), including high-cost cards such as premium cards.
Since VISA and MasterCard have a 90% share of the credit card transaction market, and merchants claim to have experienced significant increases in their transaction fees in recent years, some merchants have asked the federal government to intervene; the Competition Bureau recently referred the matter to the Competition Tribunal.
