LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - An adviser to Europe's top court rejected on Thursday an appeal by MasterCard against a European Union ban on its cross-border card fees.
"I propose that the court should dismiss the main appeal and the cross appeals," Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi said in his opinion.
Judges at the Luxembourg-based European Union Court of Justice, who follow the advisers' recommendations in the majority of cases, will rule in the coming months.
The European Commission had said that MasterCard's cross-border multilateral interchange fee, levied on retailers' credit and debit card transactions, violated EU antitrust rules and had to be changed.
(Reporting By Foo Yun Chee; editing by John O'Donnell)
