> Most payment terminals now accept MasterCard/Visa as well as Maestro/VPay, though due to EU/EEA legislation, some may only accept debit cards as well as credit cards issued outside the EU/EEA (but not credit cards issued inside the EU/EEA).
Why is this? If this is about the fee-capping rules, I would have expected that they’d disallow foreign credit cards and allow EU/EEA credit cards, since the foreign credit cards are not subject to the fee cap even when used within the EU.
Apparently it ends up being the intersection between the MasterCard/Visa ‘honor all cards’ rule (i.e. ‘if you accept MasterCard, you must accept all MasterCards’) and EU legislation saying ‘actually, you’re free not to accept cards with higher fees’.
I’m not really sure why said legislation doesn’t end up applying to foreign cards, though.
Another interesting point about fees is that when retiring the old domestic PIN network, Dutch banks ended up negotiating very low fees for domestic debit (then Maestro) transaction. Therefore, debit can end up being a lot cheaper than credit [1].
I’ve definitely seen some places in Europe that only take credit cards from within Europe, such as the French mobile phone provider SFR, and others that charge extra fees for non-European cards, such as the German airline Lufthansa. So whatever set of conditions leads to the outcome you’re describing might be specific to the Netherlands. Most merchants I’ve seen within Germany don’t treat European credit cards any differently from foreign ones, but some do reject cards without a 3D Secure system.
That's interesting; major Dutch banks ING [1] and Rabobank [2] say that acceptance of non-EEA credit cards will be mandatory, with ING explicitly stating that this is due to MasterCard and Visa rules:
> 5. What if I don’t want to accept credit card payments?
> While there is no immediate need to make this change, by the end of 2024 all merchants will be obliged to accept all card products from Mastercard and Visa, under the Honor All Cards Rule, which states that if a merchant accepts one type of that brand’s cards, they must accept them all. Merchants who accept Visa and Mastercards’ debit cards are also required to accept Visa and Mastercard’s credit cards (if they are issued outside EEA)
> This means that if you as a merchant accept any kind of Mastercard or Visa card, you must accept all Mastercards or Visa cards: debit, credit, prepaid and commercial. However, legislation does allow you, as a merchant, to refuse acceptance of credit cards issued in the EEA that are in scope of the Interchange Fee Regulation, article 10; if you wish to arrange this, you can reach out to your terminal supplier.
Strangely though, the third major bank (ABN AMRO) actually doesn't seem to mention this and only mentions EEA debit cards [3].
From your quote, it sounds like the ability to exclude EEA credit cards will only to ones "that are in the scope of the Interchange Fee Regulation, article 10", with other EEA credit cards still being mandatorily accepted. Am I misreading?
Why is this? If this is about the fee-capping rules, I would have expected that they’d disallow foreign credit cards and allow EU/EEA credit cards, since the foreign credit cards are not subject to the fee cap even when used within the EU.