Credit Card operator Mastercard has been fined €573m for anti-competitive behaviour.

The European Commission says the credit card giant was guilty of obstructing merchants' access to cross-border card payment services across the EU.

This prevented vendors from accessing better terms and conditions on offer from banks in other parts of the single market, and was thus in breach of competition law.

Bank charges

The Commission rules that retailers paid more in bank charges to receive card payments than if they had been free to shop around for a lower price competitor.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager commented "European consumers use payment cards every day, when they buy food or clothes or make purchases online.

"By preventing merchants from shopping around for better conditions offered by banks in other member states, Mastercard's rules artificially raised the costs of card payments, harming consumers and retailers in the EU."

Mastercard co-operated with the investigation and the fine was reduced by 10% in reflection of that.

Historic practices

"This decision relates to historic practices only, covers a limited period of time of less than two years and will not require any modification of Mastercard's current business practices," the company said in a statement.

"Mastercard sees the closure of this anti-trust chapter as an important milestone for the company."

Mastercard is the second biggest supplier of credit card services in the European market.