EFTPOS Payments Australia has accused its rivals, Visa and MasterCard, of trying to deny merchants and consumers any choice in the way retail payments are made.EPAL managing director, Bruce Mansfield, said MasterCard's announcement this week that all MasterCard credit and debit cards must be PayPass enabled for contactless payments by 2014 would mean all low value payments (under $100) would then be routed through Visa and MasterCard's shared contactless system.Mansfield said: "The plan is an attempt by MasterCard to gouge Australian retailers by forcing them to accept contactless cards."He said the current contactless technology did not employ a technical standard that would allow merchants to choose a preferred payment network. MasterCard's PayPass and Visa's payWave, which use the same technology, are designed to allow the consumer to complete a payment by tapping the point of sale terminal. No PIN or signature is required for transactions under $100.MasterCard announced that by October next year all MasterCard credit and debit cards would be PayPass enabled. By the same date new merchants in six markets, including taxis, supermarkets and fast food outlets, would have to be able to accept PayPass.And by April 2014 all existing MasterCard cards must be PayPass enabled and all existing merchants in the six markets must have PayPass functionalityMansfield said: "By far the largest transaction cost to Australian retailers is credit cards, followed by Visa and MasterCard debit cards, which are around three to four times more expesive that EFTPOS to accept."Consumers and merchants want fast, safe and low-cost payment cards but MasterCard's plan delivers only one of these - fast payments - and at the expense of higher merchant costs."because the contactless technology does not yet have an industry standard, it does not allow for choice of payment network."Visa Australia's country manager, Vipin Kalra, said this was a short-term issue. "In the short term, we will not see choice of one scheme over the other. Long term, there will be standards in this area."