UK court sets the stage for over $ 14 billion class action lawsuit against Mastercard

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The first consumer class action lawsuit in the UK has been cleared. The UK Supreme Court dismissed objections to the case in December.

LONDON, Aug. 18 (Reuters) – A London court on Wednesday approved a class action lawsuit worth more than £ 10 billion ($ 14 billion and over) against global payment processor Mastercard (MA.N) which the plaintiffs claim , could qualify around 300 million UK adults. pounds each if he succeeds.

The Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) was due to certify Britain’s first mass class action lawsuit, brought by former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks, after the UK Supreme Court dismissed objections against him in December. Read more

The decision to finally allow the five-year case as a class action sets a standard for a series of other proposed class actions that have been stalled in its wake.

“Mastercard has done everything to try to prevent this claim from continuing, but today its efforts have failed,” Merricks said in a statement.

“The court ruling heralds the start of an era of consumer-focused class actions that will help hold big business to account in areas that really matter.”

Mastercard said the “false” claim was motivated by lawyers and supported by organizations “primarily focused on money for themselves.”

Merricks alleges that Mastercard charged excessive “interchange” fees, the fees that retailers pay credit card companies when consumers use a card to shop – between May 1992 and June 2008 and that these fees were passed on to consumers when retailers raised their prices.

But Merricks did not broaden the scope of the case by adding the deceased’s property and compound interest to the claim. Mastercard said it reduced the size of the claim to around £ 10 billion. The applicants estimate it at 15 billion pounds.

“Today’s ruling reduces the value of this false claim by more than 35%,” Mastercard said in a statement.

“Mastercard is confident that over the next few months a review of the key facts will further significantly reduce the size and viability of the claim.”

($ 1 = 0.7265 pounds)

Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Steve Orlofsky

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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