EU accepts Visa, Mastercard offer to cut non-EU card fees to end antitrust probe

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union said on Monday that it has accepted an offer by Visa and Mastercard to cut fees on payments made by tourists using cards issued outside the bloc to stave off fines and end an EU antitrust investigation.

"This, together with our January 2019 decision on Mastercard's cross-border card payment services, will lead to lower prices for European retailers to do business, ultimately to the benefit of all consumers," Europe's antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

The commitments will cut such multilateral interchange fees by 40 percent on average, the European Commission said on Monday.

(Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop)