On Sept. 11, 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union
(CJEU) rejected MasterCard's appeal against the General
Court's 2012 judgment that the European Commission (Commission)
had been correct in its assessment that MasterCard's
multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) breached Article 101(1) of the
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). CJEU also
simultaneously dismissed cross-appeals from Royal Bank of Scotland
and Lloyds Banking Group.
In December 2007, the Commission found that the decisions of the
MasterCard payment organization in setting MIFs constituted
decisions by an "association of undertakings" falling
within the scope of Article 101(1) TFEU, and that the MIFs had
appreciable restrictive effects on competition, which affected
trade between EU Member States. The Commission concluded that the
MIFs were not objectively necessary for MasterCard's system to
operate and to compete. MasterCard appealed to the General Court in
the first
