Abstract
The credit card market is made up of two main firms: VISA and Mastercard/Eurocard. The influence of the "Big Two" has triggered both in the USA and Europe, competition law concerns and placed the (as yet little economically analyzed) credit card market in the centre of microeconomic analysis. The present article introduces the essential market conditions of the credit card market, and presents results from competition law discourse in a broader economic framework. The crucial question from the competition law perspective of the market dominance of the "Big Two" is analyzed for European countries. Cost indicators (internet costs, interest rate levels, credit risk) are employed to show that the variable costs do not influence market prices in the credit card market. This result points to a dominance of VISA und Mastercard/Eurocard in the credit card market in Europe. Further evidence for this dominance is documented by special contracts.
| Translated title of the contribution | The big two - How competitive is the market for credit cards |
|---|---|
| Original language | German |
| Pages (from-to) | 445-470 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | Jahrbucher fur Nationalokonomie und Statistik |
| Volume | 224 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2004 |
| Externally published | Yes |