On Sept. 11, 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union
(CJEU) upheld an appeal by Groupement des Carte Bancaires (GCB)
against a General Court judgment that had concluded that fees
charged by GCB on the issuing of cards were anticompetitive and a
breach of Article 101(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (TFEU). The fees were higher for banks that were not
sufficiently active in installing ATMs or making contracts with
acquiring merchants. In practice, such banks were new members of
GCB, and included online banks and the banking arms of major
retailers.
The CJEU held that the General Court had erred in law with
regard to the criteria that it used to determine that the fee
agreement constituted a "by object" restriction of
competition. The General Court held that by object restrictions
must not be interpreted restrictively, and that the wording of the
fee agreement made it clear that it was restrictive of competition
by object. In contrast,
