he European Commission (EC) said on Friday that the international credit card company MasterCard Inc may have violated the European Union (EU) antitrust rules by restricting competition between banks.

In a press release, the EU's executive arm said it had sent a supplementary statement of objections (SO) to the company on June 23. This was a preliminary document and the EC had yet to decide whether MasterCard had broken EU rules.

The statement of objections related to the company's "cross- border interchange fees," or inter-bank fees paid by merchant banks to card-issuing banks for over-the-counter payments with a MasterCard or Maestro payment card.

MasterCard's cross-border interchange fees applied to all cross- border transactions in the EU and to domestic transactions in nine EU countries, the EC said.

Roughly 45 percent of all payment cards issued in the European Economic Area bear a MasterCard or Maestro logo. MasterCard's debit cards are accepted at around 85 percent of merchants accepting debit cards in the area, it added.

MasterCard is the world's number two payment system after Visa. More than 24 million merchants in about 210 countries accept its cards.

Source: Xinhua