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UK class action lawsuits overview:
- Who: The UK continues moving closer to allowing class action lawsuits to be filed on a mass scale.
- Why: The Consumer Rights Act paved the way for consumers in the UK to be able to file competition law complaints in the country.
- Where: Seven class action lawsuits have proceeded to trial in the UK since the Consumer Rights Act was passed in 2015.
Consumers in the UK are moving closer to being able to be a part of class action lawsuits similar to those targeting businesses, persons and other entities in the United States.
Former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks filed a landmark class action lawsuit last year against Mastercard on behalf of more than 46 billion consumers over claims the company charged unlawful interchange fees.
“I feel both very excited but also aware of the responsibility on my shoulders,” Merricks told Top Class Actions last November.
Merricks argues Mastercard infringed on EU competition law by assigning what he claims are unfair “interchange fees” charged to consumers who made debit and credit card purchases in the UK between May 1992 and June 2008.
The complaint, which Competition Appeal Tribunal approved in August of last year, has also cleared the way for other U.S.-style class action lawsuits related to antitrust claims against big companies such as Apple, Qualcomm and BT.
UK’s Consumer Rights Act a boon to class action lawsuit filing
The ability to file a class action lawsuit in the UK was given a boon in 2015 after the government passed the Consumer Rights Act, which allowed complaints related to competition law to be filed on behalf of multiple consumers and businesses.
The new legislation only began making headway, however, after the Supreme Court’s late 2020 decision to allow Merrick’s class action lawsuit against Mastercard to continue.
“It’s a pioneering initiative,” Merricks told Top Class Actions. “We were committed to do this because of the change in legislation in 2015.”
A total of seven class action lawsuits have made it to trial since the Consumer Rights Act was passed with at least a dozen still waiting to be approved, Financial Times reports.
In related news, a record number of class action lawsuits were filed in Europe in 2021, driven by a spike in claims filed in the UK, according to a new study by international law firm CMS.
Are you excited about the possibility of being able to be a part of a class action lawsuit in the UK? Let us know in the comments!
Merricks is represented by Marie Demetriou QC and Victoria Wakefield QC of Brick Court Chambers and instructed by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.
The Mastercard interchange fee class action lawsuit is Merricks v. Mastercard Inc., et al., Case No. 1266/7/7/16, in the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
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