Harcus Parker, the law firm behind the latest compensation claim against the two payments behemoths, believes it could amount to well over £10bn, Sky News learns.
The global payment giants Mastercard and Visa are facing the latest in a string of multibillion-pound competition lawsuits with the launch of a potentially vast class action claim on behalf of British companies.
Sky News has learnt that Harcus Parker, a London-based commercial litigation law firm, is close to filing what it believes will be among the biggest competition compensation claims in UK history.
The filing, at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), will allege that Mastercard and Visa overcharged businesses for so-called multilateral interchange fees (MIFs), which are paid by businesses to their banks to accept payment by credit or debit card.
MIFs are estimated to comprise as much as 90% of the cost of a typical company’s monthly bank charge.
The claim will argue that these fees are set by Mastercard and Visa themselves, rather than by market forces, and are imposed on banks as a condition of their participation in the two companies’ card schemes.
Mastercard is also facing a £14 billion class action suit over interchange fees brought on behalf of British shoppers.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below: