The European Commission has said the amount of commission consumers are charged for making payments in Europe using Visa debit cards is to fall.
The Commission said Visa Europe was planning to cut the fee charged between banks for each payment to 0.2% of the final price.
The new maximum level applies to all cross-border transactions in the European Economic Area, which is the 27 EU member countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
'This will improve the efficiency of the European financial system to the benefit of consumers and retailers,' said the EU's competition commissioner, Joaquin Almunia.
The changes are in line with those undertaken by rival Mastercard in April last year and are designed to head off the threat of massive fines for breaching competition law.
Cross-border fees will be reduced by about 30% on average, the commission said, while charges for domestic transactions will fall by about 60%.
