Industry committee  No, they're tied to the dollar amount.

Industry committee  I don't write merchant contracts. I know of none to that effect, but that question is probably better directed to the acquirers, because we don't manage that contract.

Finance committee  The honour-all-cards rule requires a merchant to accept all cards. I have two points on that. Paul Jewer from Sobeys, in his testimony, said that some sort of compromise on the honour-all-cards rule wouldn't work for merchants either. If they advertise that they accept a certain

Finance committee  No, but there is increased spending on the card. On average, 40% more is spent at a merchant's on a premium card versus an ordinary card.

Finance committee  There are acquirer fees that mark up interchange fees, and MasterCard has small transactional fees that are flat. We have fees that are ad valorem as well, but they're very small compared to interchange fees.

Finance committee  No, they're tied to the dollar amount.

Finance committee  I don't write merchant contracts. I know of none to that effect, but that question is probably better directed to the acquirers, because we don't manage that contract.

Industry committee  The models in Europe are maybe inapplicable because they apply to cross-border transactions, which don't exist in Canada. It's an EU regulation that applies. Australia is really the most extensive and comparable market to see what happens when these regulations are put in place

Industry committee  I'm very afraid that outside of making sure that the competitive laws of Canada are working and that competition is governing behaviour, this will result in unintended effects, specifically a reduction in competition and an exiting of the market by small players, creating barrier

Industry committee  I think there's no doubt there has been a reaction to end-user pricing. I think that's an understatement. But as I mentioned to Mr. Thibeault, some of the numbers we heard mentioned yesterday were surprising, because they don't bear relation to the increases we put in place. In

Industry committee  Well, we don't give notice to the merchants, but we always give at least six months' notice to the acquirers, who then turn around and give what notice they're required to give to the merchants.

Industry committee  Well, their contracts generally do. Maybe Andrea could speak to that, because—

Industry committee  Our gas rate went down.

Industry committee  It went from 145 to 136.

Finance committee  The models in Europe are maybe inapplicable because they apply to cross-border transactions, which don't exist in Canada. It's an EU regulation that applies. Australia is really the most extensive and comparable market to see what happens when these regulations are put in place