A good question.
Having just returned from addressing an international photo conference, I asked merchants and retailers I met during a separate visit to London, why their merchant interchange rates are more than half that in the States? The typical reply was one of confusion, especially because electronic payment technology and the card associations' network, they would think, was more advanced in the U.S., and thus should be even lower than their rates, which they too say are way too high.
[Average interchange fees in the UK is about 0.70% and 1.70% in the U.S., respectively].
[Source: WayTooHigh.com]
