Visa introducing Digital Commerce Services Fee in EU

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FEE CHANGE | VISA | EU

Effective date: April 1, 2027

Merchant impact: Awareness of new flat fee replacing several individually billed services.

Visa is introducing the Digital Commerce Services Fee (DCSF) in the EU. The fee is charged on all authorizations. Visa will cease charging for the following services individually and instead charge a flat fee:

• Visa Account Updater (VAU) and Real Time VAU
• Visa Digital Credential Updater (VDCU)
• Address Verification Service (AVS)
• Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2)

• Similar fee already exists in the US and AP regions.
• Visa will no longer bill for these services separately.
• Group A is mostly domestic; Group B is mostly cross-border.

Mastercard Specialty Merchant Registration Program Fees

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FEE CHANGE | MASTERCARD | EU, CA, AP-LAC-US, JP

Effective dates: Varies by region — see table below

Merchant impact: Awareness of updated and new per-transaction fees for high-risk merchants.

Mastercard is updating an existing fee and introducing new Specialty Merchant Registration Program fees:

*Updated fee; the remaining fees are new.

Effective dates by region:

• Two new per-transaction fees apply to high-risk merchants.
• EU excludes MCCs 7995, 5122, 5912, and 9406.

Mastercard revised 3DS and MDES pricing for europe

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FEE CHANGE | MASTERCARD | EU

Effective dates: July 1, 2026; July 13, 2026

Merchant impact: Awareness of standardized rates replacing prior country-specific pricing.

Beginning July 1, 2026, Mastercard is standardizing rates for 3DS and MDES authentication in most European countries. The new rate replaces country-specific rates with a single, transparent set of rates, with a low cap on declined transactions of EUR 1,000 and a high cap on approved transactions of EUR 10,000.

• Prior rates varied by country; this change standardizes rates.

Mastercard revising Acquirer Cross-border Assessment fees in Canada

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FEE CHANGE | MASTERCARD | CA

Effective date: July 20, 2026

Merchant impact: Awareness of standardized cross-border assessment fees.

Effective July 20, 2026, Mastercard is updating rates for non-Dynamic Currency Conversion (non-DCC) Cross-Border volume assessments for acquirers to align with current DCC Cross-Border Assessment rates in Canada. This change standardizes the Acquirer Cross-Border Assessment.

The current cross border fee is 60bps if the Issuer performs the FX, and 100bps if the Merchant performs the FX using DCC, thus disincentivizing Merchants from performing DCC. The fee will now be 100bps regardless of whether Merchant or Issuer performs the FX.

• Standardized cross-border fees in Canada.

Mastercard introducing Not Reversed or Cleared Preauthorization TPE program in Europe

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FEE CHANGE | MASTERCARD | EU

Effective date: October 1, 2026

Merchant impact: Awareness of new fee.

Mastercard is introducing the Not Reversed or Cleared Preauthorization TPE program in Europe. The fee applies when an approved preauthorization is not cleared or fully reversed within 30 calendar days from the authorization date.

• This fee is already live in the rest of world.

Mastercard revised Authorization Acquirer Exemption Indicator Fee

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FEE CHANGE | MASTERCARD | EU & UK

Effective date: October 12, 2026

Merchant impact: Awareness of revised fee structure with new carve-outs.

Mastercard is updating the pricing and billing parameters of the SCA exemption indicator. The fee will apply to both approved and declined transactions.

Current fee: EUR 0.02

Updated fee structure:

• 5bps Domestic
• 10bps Intraregional
• 15bps Interregional

For Domestic and Intraregional transactions, the fee applies to all exemptions except MIT, recurring, SCP (Secure Corporate Payment), and AOE (Authentication Outage Exception).

For Interregional transactions, the fee only applies to low-risk TRA, LVP (low value payments), and SCA delegation.

• The fee used to apply to all exemptions; there are now carve-outs.
• A 3-tier fee structure replaces the prior flat fee.
• This benefits small-ticket merchants relative to large-ticket merchants.

Mastercard Transaction Link Identifier

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PROGRAM CHANGE | MASTERCARD | GLOBAL

Effective date: December 1, 2026

Merchant impact: Awareness of new mandatory transaction identifier.

Mastercard is introducing a new transaction identifier called the Transaction Link Identifier (TLID). Mastercard will generate and populate the TLID, and it must be carried throughout the lifecycle of the transaction. The enforcement mechanism is Data Integrity Edit 26 – Transaction Link ID 1240, with the following timeline:

• 6/2/26 – Monitoring begins
• 7/1/26 – Notifications begin
• 12/1/26 – Comply-by date
• 1/31/27 – Assessments begin

• TLID will eventually replace TraceID.

Mastercard revised pricing for Customer Performance Development Fund in EU & the UK/Ireland

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FEE CHANGE | MASTERCARD | EU, UK/IRELAND

Effective date: January 1, 2027

Merchant impact: Awareness of four rate changes phased in over three years, aimed at driving tokenization and authentication.

Effective January 1, 2027, Mastercard is revising pricing for the Customer Performance Development Fund (CPDF) in Europe and in the UK/Ireland. There are four changes phased in over three years. In April 2028, Guest Checkout will be included in the non-token fee in addition to Card on File (CoF); this fee will be renamed Not Tokenized Card Not Present (CNP).

• These are behavioral fees intended to drive tokenization and authentication.
• The Visa equivalent is the Secure Credential Framework fee.

EU pricing changes – not Tokenized / no Authentication

No Authentication

UK/Ireland Pricing Changes – Not Tokenized / No Authentication

No Authentication