The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) has fined both Société Générale and Caisse d'Epargne de Loire-Centre for charging excessive fees for credit card payments. Here's a closer look at this penalty.
Interchange fees too high
Société Générale and Caisse d'Epargne de Loire-Centre were fined 1.6 million euros and 175,000 euros respectively by the DGCCRF.
Interchange fees, i.e. the fees paid by merchant banks to consumer banks for bankcard payments, were excessive, exceeding the ceiling introduced by the 2015 European regulations.
In December 2020, 6 French banks had been sanctioned by the DGCCRF for the same reason. The total fine exceeded 2.8 million euros, divided between :
- Caisse fédérale du Crédit Mutuel Maine Anjou Basse-Normandie,
- Banque Populaire du Grand Ouest,
- Crédit Agricole Normandie Regional Bank,
- La Banque Postale,
- Afone,
- BNP Paribas.
Non-compliance with European regulations
In the case of Société Générale and Caisse d'Epargne de Loire-Centre, the average interchange fee observed by the DGCCRF was 0.3%, instead of the maximum 0.2% for debit cards, as required by European regulations.
The DGCCRF also noted a lack of transparency in pricing, and a lack of information about the nature of bank cards. Indeed, while the interchange fee ceiling is set at 0.2% for debit cards, it is 0.3% for credit cards, but the information provided to customers does not always make it clear what type of bank card they have.
Société Générale confirmed that it would pay the fine and lower fees to comply with the regulations. However, it denied any fraud and referred to a certain ambiguity concerning the application of European Union texts.
In December 2020, BNP Paribas contested the sanction imposed by the DGCCRF, and lodged an appeal with the Paris Administrative Court. Two other forms of irregularity had been noted: the lack of pricing transparency, with contracts signed by customers failing to specify commission details, and the lack of legibility of markings on debit and credit cards.