2009 March 09

This lecture will take place at 11:30 a.m. in the "DZ Bank Lecture Room" of the House of Finance (Campus Westend).

[Dr. Malte Krüger, PaySys]

The pricing of retail payments has received increasing attention of regulators. In many cases, regulators are concerned that consumers do not face cost based prices. They argue that without cost based prices consumers will make inefficient choices. However, both, economics of scale and the particular laws governing pricing in two-sided markets, provide a case against cost based pricing. Moreover, if surcharging is possible, consumers may face two payment-related charges: charges of payment service providers and charges of merchants. Therefore, a proper understanding of the efficiency of current pricing practices requires an analysis of the surcharging behaviour of merchants.