Class action lawsuit served against Visa and Mastercard to contest card payment fees affecting UK businesses

A class action lawsuit has been served against Visa and Mastercard at the UK’s specialist competition tribunal on behalf of a large number of claimants seeking damages for allegedly unlawful charges.

Harcus Parker, a London based commercial litigation law firm specialising in group litigation, competition litigation and class action lawsuits, has brought the corporate card claim at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), the UK’s specialist judicial body for hearing competition cases.

The class action seeks compensation for UK businesses, which were charged Multilateral Interchange Fees (MIFs) for accepting payments using corporate credit cards, and credit and debit cards from overseas visitors. The CAT has published the claim on its website.

Harcus Parker claims that Visa and Mastercard have forced banks to agree to a level of MIFs set by the two “giants”, which are “anti-competitive and unlawful”.

Jeremy Robinson, competition litigation partner at Harcus Parker, commented:“We want to make sure that businesses across the UK economy are properly compensated. We are making a stand against unlawful interchange fees, which should be abolished.

“Both the Court of Justice of the EU and the United Kingdom Supreme Court have condemned this practice for consumer credit and debit cards. The UK courts should now clamp down on commercial card and inter-regional fees.

“UK businesses in the travel, hospitality, retail and luxury sectors are particularly hurt by Mastercard and Visa’s multilateral interchange fees.”

Multilateral Interchange Fees make up the greater part of the service charges levied by banks on businesses when customers pay by card. Typically, for every £100 spent, up to £1.80 is charged on payments made by corporate cards, or cards used by overseas visitors, costs which are borne by companies throughout the UK.

Since 2015, EU law capped Multilateral Interchange Fees at 0.3 percent on consumer credit card transactions, and 0.2 percent for consumer debit cards. However, this cap did not apply to corporate credit and debit cards or for inter-regional transactions. These sales have continued to attract fees of up to 1.8 percent per transaction.

The class action is open to all businesses, including large international companies and local businesses, as well as some non-UK companies. UK businesses with an annual pre-Covid turnover of £100m or more are invited to opt-in to the claim. Businesses with a turnover under this threshold will be automatically included unless they choose to opt out.

By Matthew Neville – Correspondent, Bdaily

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