Mastercard and Visa face new £5bn group claim

A new £5 billion claim was today added to the avalanche of Competition Appeal Tribunal litigation over service fees charged by payment cards giants. Group litigation firms Harcus Parker and Hausfeld are acting in two claims lodged in the CAT by proposed class representative Stephen Allen, the former head of Portman Travel.

The claims concern multilateral interchange fees (MIFs). Mastercard and Visa set these fees, and businesses pay them through their banks every time a customer pays by card. MIFs are estimated to make up most of a typical business’s merchant service charge.

The new collective actions are potentially worth £5 billion and would be one of the biggest competition compensation claims in UK history. It will be open to all UK businesses – big and small – who accept Mastercard and Visa consumer debit, credit and prepaid cards. The latest claims follow a £700 million claim lodged in the tribunal earlier this month on behalf of a proposed class of 126,000 UK businesses.

Another claim against entities in the Visa and Mastercard group of companies over alleged fee overcharges was registered in the CAT last month - the tenth anniversary of the historic Merricks v Mastercard claim, which settled for £200m in 2024. Allen said: 'Every business that takes cards pays these fees, from a corner shop to a national chain.

In previous cases, the tribunal has found that these fees were unlawful, and that in almost all instances it is businesses, rather than consumers, who have suffered the losses arising from Visa’s and Mastercard’s MIFs. This claim finally gives UK businesses a chance to recover what we say they were overcharged.' A case management hearing on umbrella proceedings opened in the tribunal today.

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.'