Brussels  - The European Commission on Wednesday decided to drop its antitrust charges against MasterCard after the payments card company agreed to reduce the fees it charges for international transactions.

MasterCard had already bowed to EU pressure in June by temporarily repealing its multilateral interchange fees (MIFs), which had been found to breach the bloc's competition rules.

The commission said Wednesday that MasterCard had now decided to reduce its maximum cross-border MIFs to 0.30 per cent for consumer credit cards and to 0.20 per cent for consumer debit cards. In 2007, such MIFs ranged from an average of 0.80 per cent to 1.90 per cent.

MasterCard also agreed to repeal the fee increases it had announced in October, and will in future make it easier for consumers and merchants to know how much they are being charged for paying goods with its credit or debit cards.

"I am satisfied that these undertakings will not only improve the efficiency and transparency of the MasterCard payment card scheme, but also provide a fair share of the benefits to consumers and retailers," said EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

Separately, the commission said it was continuing a similar antitrust investigation into the Visa company. (dpa)