EU Antitrust and Cash Back Programs?
 

I read that some Taiwanese banks are stopping cash rebates for charges made at EU countries starting 1/1/2020 because some EU anti-trust lawsuits against Visa and/or Mastercard. Anyone know what the deal is?

Thanks.

Perhaps the fees collected from merchants in the EU are no longer sufficient to support the fees. Can you post a link to the article?

It looks like cash rebate cards are common in Taiwan. I also can't find an article specifically excluding EU transactions from the rebate, but what is funny is this HSBC one pays more on overseas transactions.

https://www.hsbc.com.tw/en-tw/credit...ack-signature/

That's my guess. While the EU's interchange fee cap doesn't actually apply to foreign cards, both Visa and MC charge only the 0.3% capped rate for card-present transactions, regardless of where the card was issued. Visa gets 1.5% on CNP transactions, hence the common surcharge for buying airline tickets with a foreign credit card. I think MC is similar.

With only 0.3% interchange, someone is getting a really bad deal when I use my American 2.5% cash back card to buy groceries every week.

Here is the newspaper article (in Chinese): https://money.udn.com/money/story/5617/4085052 - it does seem to be what you guys are thinking. I wonder if this will spread to cards issued in other countries (e.g. Citibank Costco Visa)...

Now with the prevalence of no FTF available, even with no AF, it is still a game of averages. Even in the US, large merchants and certain types pay a much different interchange fee (below 2%) versus other merchants.

I have never seen a US issuer close a customer because of it, but I guess it is possible. It seems like the dream to have a great US card to use in EU, but I suspect it is still a small number who can profit so much.

thats not uncommon. a lot of cards in singapore offer more % for overseas spending vs local spending (any type of spend, not specific to a category like dining)
too bad high annual fees

https://www.valuechampion.sg/best-cr...rseas-spending