The UK was part of the EU until recently, and still maintains the card transaction fee cap regulation.
The article is wrong here.
[1] https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/content/dam/barclaycard/docume...
(To put it bluntly, a big amendment was automatically applied to most UK laws on exit day replacing EU & EEA with UK; and of course in the EU the definition of both of those words changed)