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More Action Needed on Credit Card Charges


Press Release

29 June 2011

For Immediate Release


GOVERNMENT MUST GO FURTHER ON CREDIT CARD FEES
The government should act under EU law to outlaw all unfair credit and debit card charges not just those applied to debit cards.
 
That's the message from Labour MEPs following today's announcement by the Office of Fair Trading that additional fees for the use of debit cards should be banned and credit card fees made more transparent.
 
European legislation, agreed by MEPs last week, will require the government to put in place legislation to stop rip-off card surcharges by 2014.
 
But Labour MEPs are calling on the government to act sooner after today's OFT ruling.
 
Labour's spokesperson in the European Parliament on consumer affairs, Catherine Stihler MEP, said:


"I welcome today's decision by the OFT that makes clear exorbitant card charges are unfair. Consumer laws agreed by the European Parliament last week make it clear that unfair surcharges for all means of payment must be made illegal in the UK before 2014.

"It is one thing to pass a genuine additional cost on to the consumer, it is quite another to use surcharges and fees as a means of making additional cash by misleading consumers.

"The government should act sooner rather than later and bring in legislation to challenge all rip-off card fees as a matter of urgency."


ENDS