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Sep 24, 2009, 12:06 GMT

Visa, Mastercard, banks fined for price fixing in Hungary

Budapest - The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) issued fines on Thursday of more than 10 million dollars to Visa, MasterCard and seven local banks for distorting the market through price fixing. The GVH fined Visa and MasterCard 477 million forints (2.61 million dollars) each for their role in the cartel. Seven banks - OTP, CIB, MKB, K&H, Budapest Bank and the local subsidiaries of Austria's Erste Bank and Dutch ING - each received fines ranging from 90 to 281 million forints. The GVH found that the banks and the two card operators had agreed back in 1996 to charge the same interchange fee for card transactions. The interchange fee is the payment the card companies get from issuing banks for each customer transaction. The market watchdog said this had distorted the market by limiting competition between the two card companies and the banks that issue their cards. The companies involved have 30 days to pay up or appeal the GVH's ruling. MasterCard told the local news agency MTI that it plans to appeal, saying it was 'extremely disappointed' with the decision. Antal Kovacs, the deputy chief executive of OTP bank, told reporters that he disagreed with the authority's decision.

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