Charges imposed by payment card companies are to be the subject of a new £700 million Competition Appeal Tribunal group claim.
The opt-out action, brought on behalf of a proposed class of 126,000 UK businesses, alleges that Mastercard and Visa overcharged UK businesses for accepting online or other kinds of remote payments from customers in the European Economic Area. It follows a claim against entities in the Visa and Mastercard group of companies over alleged fee overcharges which was registered in the CAT last month - the tenth anniversary of the historic Merricks v Mastercard claim, which settled for £200m in 2024.
The latest claim is brought by Ann Pope, a former senior director of the Competition and Markets Authority. She is represented by specialist competition law firm Geradin Partners. It is unclear who is funding the litigation.
The claim seeks compensation on behalf of all UK-based businesses that have accepted online payments from customers whose cards were issued in the EEA at any point since October 2020. The claim argued that Visa and Mastercard increased interchange fees significantly following Brexit.
Pope said: 'Europe is a crucial market for many British businesses, who accept online transactions from EEA-based customers every day without a second thought. Following Brexit, fees charged on these transactions increased five-fold. Our legal action seeks to recover what we say UK businesses have wrongly been required to pay.'
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David Gallagher, a partner at Geradin Partners, said: 'Visa and Mastercard have great power over the payments that businesses rely on every day. The Competition Appeal Tribunal has already found that their interchange fee arrangements restrict competition. Following Brexit, Visa and Mastercard substantially increased interchange fees charged on transactions with EEA consumers. This prompted the UK payments regulator to propose a price cap (which has not yet been implemented but is still being considered).
'Our claims seeks redress for UK businesses who, we say, have suffered harm as a result of Visa and Mastercard’s conduct.'
A Mastercard spokesperson said: 'We strongly disagree with the basis of this claim. Interchange plays a vital role in supporting the UK payments ecosystem and ensures people and businesses can pay and get paid quickly and securely.
'This speculative claim does nothing to support UK businesses or consumers and instead reflects the growing trend of opportunistic funder-backed litigation. It is exactly the type of claim the UK government’s recently announced proposed opt-out class action reforms are directed at preventing.'
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