The EU General Court has ruled that a French bank card group imposed anticompetitive fees on new entrants. The decision upheld a 2007 European Commission decision banning the charges because they inhibited smaller banks from offering discounted card programs.
The defendant contended that the fees were necessary to its payment system and that the EC had failed to adequately consider that possibility. Although the General Court agreed that the fees could fulfill the legitimate goal of preventing free riding, it also agreed with the EC that potentially legitimate goals do not insulate anticompetitive fees from antitrust challenge. “It is apparent from the caselaw,” the court explained, “that the measures[‘] legitimate objective of fighting against free-riding on the [defendant’s payment] system does not” foreclose the possibility that the defendant also seeks to restrict competition.