On 3 April, the European Parliament voted  in favour of a plan to end roaming charges for mobile phone users from mid-December 2015. EU Member States are yet to approve the scheme. Should the plan pass through according to schedule, operators would no longer be able to charge travelers within the EU extra for mobile phone calls, text messages and surfing on the Internet.

In a separate vote, European lawmakers backed a plan seeing bank charges for processing consumer payments via credit cards capped at 0.3% of the transaction value and at a maximum of seven Eurocents ($0.1) for debit cards. This scheme will also have to be approved by  EU Member States, with talks on the issue expected to begin this summer. At present, Eastern European consumers are the ones paying the highest credit card fees due to lower market penetration, while Scandinavian customers pay the lowest fees.