The European Union has accepted an offer by Visa and Mastercard to cut fees on payments made by tourists using cards issued outside the bloc to stave off fines and end an EU antitrust investigation.

The European Union has fined global credit card giant Mastercard 570 million euros ($647 million) for limiting competition between banks offering cheaper payment fees.

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has teamed up with MasterCard to launch a summer promotion, titled ‘Win Weekly with QIB Mastercard Cards’, with a grand prize of QR100,000.

A British lawyer suing MasterCard for £14 billion (17 billion euros, $19 billion) over card charges accused the US financial giant on Friday of indirectly pushing up prices for all British consumers.

Brazil football legend Pele said poor health will prevent him from lighting the Olympic cauldron at the Games' opening ceremony on Friday as he had hoped to do.

A federal appeals court on Thursday threw out a $7.25 billion antitrust settlement among Visa Inc, MasterCard Inc and millions of retailers over credit card fees.