EuroCommerce, which represents the retail and wholesale sector across Europe, has called on EU institutions to extend interchange fee caps to commercial payment cards, arguing that uncapped fees are inflating prices across the European economy and costing businesses at least €4 billion annually.
As it noted, commercial card interchange fees remain significantly higher than those applied to consumer debit and credit cards under the EU’s 2015 Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR).
While the IFR capped interchange fees for consumer cards at 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit cards, commercial cards – including corporate and business cards – were excluded from the rules. According to EuroCommerce, interchange fees for commercial cards now range from 1.3% to 2.4% – or up to six times higher than consumer card fees.
‘These higher fees for commercial cards translate to higher sales prices for B2B customers because higher costs will be reflected in higher prices to EU citizens, even though citizens don’t use commercial cards,’ EuroCommerce said in a statement.
Increased use
As the Brussels-based organisation said, the increased use of commercial cards is exacerbating the problem. Commercial cards now account for around 4% of transactions and 8% of transaction value in Europe, with the higher value share reflecting larger average transaction sizes.
‘Attracted by the significantly higher interchange, issuers are pushing for commercial cards propositions e.g. to use these cards for business-to-business (B2B) payments instead of SEPA credit transfers, such as between travel intermediaries and hotels and/or airlines, or to use commercial cards as the basis for meal and social vouchers,’ EuroCommerce said.
‘The absolute volume and value of commercial cards have grown parallel with the growth of the overall cards volume and value, with the relative share staying roughly the same.’
Additional fees
Using European Central Bank payment statistics, EuroCommerce estimates that merchants paid at least €4 billion more in fees during 2025 than they would have if commercial cards had been subject to the same caps as consumer cards.
The group is calling on EU lawmakers to remove the exemption for commercial cards from the IFR by deleting Article 1.3(a), arguing that the same competition concerns that justified capping consumer card fees also apply to commercial cards. Such a move would help reduce price discrimination, support a more level playing field for businesses and limit inflationary pressure on consumers across the EU, it added. Read more here.
