The Commission alleges that the banks and GCB operated in concert to share out the market for the issuance of CB cards and prevent the entry of large domestic retailers and certain small and medium-sized banks, including foreign banks.

Letters of objection have been dispatched to GCB and to BNP-Paribas, Caisses d’Epargne, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel, CIC, Crédit Lyonnais, La Poste, Natexis Banques Populaires and Société Générale.

The Commissions actions follows unannounced raids in May last year on the offices of GCB and the named banks in the wake of the introduction of new charges for CB card issuance. The charges were levied shortly after the arrival of new card issuers offering cheaper CB cards with new functions.

During its inspections, the Commission says it found a number of documents that "provided evidence of a secret agreement designed to prevent competition on a coordinated basis". A meeting report, for example, stated: "OK on blocking new entrants"; while another document stated: "We have to introduce issuing charges."

The tariffs adopted by the GCB forced the new entrants to scale down their card issuing projects considerably, alleges the Commission, and increased costs by €23 per card per year.

The Commission adds: "Not only are the nine banks party to the agreement spared the new charges, but they benefit from them, since the charges paid by new entrants accrue to them.

The statement of objections sets out the Commission’s preliminary position on the infringements of the competition rules. The addressees have three months in which to reply and to request a hearing.

The Commission says that its statement "in no way challenges the legitimacy of GCB as the joint and effective operator of the CB card payment system in France".