Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
UPDATE
- Hearing is scheduled for the 25 and 26 of March.
The U.K. Supreme Court allowed a £14 billion Mastercard class action lawsuit to move forward last week, over allegations the credit card company overcharged more than 46 million people in Britain through its merchant swipe fees between 1992 and 2008.
If this Mastercard class action lawsuit is successful, eligible Class Members could be eligible for a payment of £300 each.
“Mastercard has been imposing excessive card transaction charges over a prolonged period in a way it must have known would impose an invisible tax on UK consumers,” lawyer Walter Merricks said.
The Mastercard class action lawsuit challenges interchange fees that are levied by payment card companies on merchants’ banks, purportedly to cover the costs of payment card services, innovation and security.
Merricks says these card transaction charges were excessive and resulted in merchants charging higher prices for their goods and services, passing the charge onto consumers.
History of the Mastercard Class Action Lawsuit
The Mastercard class action lawsuit was launched after the credit card company lost its appeal of a 2007 European Commission ruling that determined its fees were anti-competitive. The commission found that Mastercard’s practice of charging swipe fees infringed upon European Union competition law.
The Mastercard class action lawsuit will now reportedly be sent back to the Competition Appeal Tribunal for consideration. The CAT was nominated to oversee the U.K’s collective actions for breaches of U.K. or E.U. competition law.
The CAT refused to certify the Mastercard class action lawsuit in 2017 because of the complex nature of the case. Now, it will reconsider granting the collective proceedings order that will allow the case to proceed to trial. A hearing for the £14 billion Mastercard class action lawsuit has reportedly been set for the 25 and 26 of March at the CAT. Anyone who wants to object to the claims have until March 15 to do so.
Supreme Court Sends Case Back to the CAT for Reconsideration
The Supreme Court found that CAT erred in several ways when it declined to certify the case in 2017. First, the court determined that the CAT failed to recognize commonalities in the manner in which merchants passed the interchange fees on to consumers.
Secondly, the Supreme Court determined that the CAT had erred by requiring Merricks to consider the individual losses suffered by each Class Member instead of considering aggregate damages. The top court noted that a significant reason for awarding aggregate damages is to avoid individual assessments.
“Where aggregate damages are to be awarded, section 47C of the [Competition] Act removes the ordinary requirement for the separate assessment of each claimant’s loss in the plainest terms,” Justice Michael Briggs reportedly wrote in the ruling. “Nothing in the provisions of the act or the rules in relation to the distribution of a collective award among the class puts it back again.”
The Supreme Court found that the CAT’s “most serious error” was deciding to refuse certification because of incomplete data. Justice Briggs wrote that the CAT has a duty to handle such challenges, and can do so with extrapolation or other techniques.
“It is a task which the CAT owes a duty to the represented class to carry out, as best as it can with the evidence that eventually proves to be available,” Justice Briggs wrote.
Mastercard to Continue Fight Against Class Action
Mastercard says it will keep up the fight against the swipe fee class action lawsuit and ask CAT to “avert the serious risk of the new collective action regime going down the wrong path with a case which is fundamentally flawed.”
The credit card company says that U.K. consumers did not ask for the swipe fee class action lawsuit; instead, Mastercard says it is “being driven by ‘hit and hope’ U.S. lawyers” and supported by organisations that are motivated by money.
U.K. Collective Action Cases
The Mastercard class action lawsuit is one of the first collective actions to be filed in the U.K. The collective action regime was introduced in 2015 by lawmakers seeking to give consumers the ability to pursue class action lawsuits against companies allegedly engaged in anti-competitive practices. It is designed to be more similar to the “opt-out” structure of the United States’ class action lawsuits, which automatically includes eligible Class Members unless they take an extra step to exclude themselves from participating.
What do you think about the Mastercard class action lawsuit? Do you think it should be allowed to proceed? Let us know in the comments section below.
Merricks is represented by Paul Harris QC of Monckton Chambers and by Marie Demetriou QC and Victoria Wakefield QC of Brick Court Chambers, instructed by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.
The Mastercard Class Action Lawsuit is Mastercard Inc., et al. v. Walter Hugh Merricks, Case No. UKSC 2019/0118, in the U.K. Supreme Court.
ATTORNEY ADVERTISING
Top Class Actions is a Proud Member of the American Bar Association
LEGAL INFORMATION IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE
Top Class Actions Legal Statement
©2008 – 2024 Top Class Actions® LLC
Various Trademarks held by their respective owners
This website is not intended for viewing or usage by European Union citizens.
One thought on UK’s Top Court Green Lights £14B Mastercard Class Action
I absolutely think the action should be allowed to proceed. Time for change for good!