The news that Visa is joining Mastercard in raising the fees it charges for cross border business between the UK and Europe should not come as a surprise. One of the things the EU is good at is using its weight and size to tell companies what they can and cannot do. Ending roaming charges for mobile phones, reducing bank charges for cross border business and standing up to some of the biggest companies in the world on behalf of the customer, never got much of a mention but worked.
Business hated it, they just love being too big to control and playing one country off against another. One small measure of the influence of the EU in this area is that when my career started I used to spend considerable time and effort at the Department of Business, or whatever it was called at the time, trying to cover business regulations, takeovers and mergers.
Then one day it all just seemed to move to Brussels, which with considerably more heft and dozens of countries behind it, started handing out some very tough rulings, which were obeyed.
The UK can now re-shore that regulation and use its lighter more pro-business touch to cut rules and free up enterprise. Or as it is called these days, putting up your prices.
https://jonty.substack.com/
I note with interest some of the larger Internet corporations around the World giving the archers salute to Australian over paying for news feed, a subject that must be dear to the heart of any journalist. It has been interesting to see the tussle. Surely in due course the corporations will put up their prices to pass on the costs of funding the Australian journalistic endeavours?
Whilst the EU can use its size it is possible the UK could join with other CPTPP countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand to work together to ensure the larger multinational corporations don't trade in our markets without paying for local taxes or funding local output.
Some will boast about the advantage of market size, but size isn't everything it is how you manage it!