Mastercard faces £19bn claim over card charges

[Michael Browne]

MasterCard is facing a multi-billion pound damages claim that could reach £19bn for imposing allegedly illegal card charges.

 

The claim, the biggest in UK legal history, will be one of the first to be filed under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The Act enables a collective damages claim to be brought on behalf of a class of people who’ve suffered loss.

 

MasterCard was found, following a long-running legal battle with the European Commission that ended in 2014, to have infringed EU law by imposing charges (known as ‘interchange’ fees) on the use of MasterCard debit and credit cards.

 

MasterCard had the option to accept that its card fees were set at an anti-competitive, high level and reach a settlement with the European Commission to lower its fees.

 

The individual bringing the claim, Walter Merricks CBE, believes that Mastercard did not accept this, and then imposed what he alleges were unlawfully high card fees for nearly 16 years. Mastercard says it firmly disagrees with the basis of the claim.

 

The claim is being brought as class representative by Merricks, as representative of the class of UK consumers that have suffered loss.

 

http://creditstrategy.co.uk/article/18379/online-news/mastercard-faces-19bn-claim-over-card-charges

 

Mastercard to pay out £68 million over fees

 

 

Mastercard have been ordered to pay Sainsbury's £68 million over excessive fees.The people at the Competition Appeal Tribunal awarded the damages to the supermarket for "interchange fees", which MasterCard had levied over a six year period.

 

This means that a host of other retailers will be able to start their own claims against MasterCard, and the cases could total £400 million.

 

This is slightly different from the case which might get customers compensated. This revolves around an interchange fee which retailers pay every time a customer uses a credit or debit card.

 

It has been decided by the European Commission that fees of around 0.9% of the value of each card card transaction is too high, and they've now capped that to 0.3% for credit cards and 0.2% for debit cards.

 

However, the tribunal also said that these fees were not being passed on to customers.

This doesn't harm the other class action suit, where MasterCard are looking at a claim worth £19 billion, which could see consumers getting themselves £400 for excessive charges.

http://www.bitterwallet.com/banking/mastercard-to-pay-out-gbp-68-million-over-fees-92647