Credit card company MasterCard could be forced to pay out billions to British shoppers, over claims that it pushed up prices in stores.
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The filing comes after a 2014 ruling by the European Court of Justice that upheld a 2007 European Commission decision saying Mastercard’s multilateral interchange fees on cross-border transactions violated competition rules for 15 years between 1992 and 2007, the Journal noted.
The law firm in its documents filed at the court, alleged that the Mastercard charged the United Kingdom stores unlawfully high interchange fees, a fee paid by retailers to banks for the acceptance of card based transactions.
On April 29 a year ago the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted the Interchange Fee Regulation, and caps of 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit cards came into effect on December 9.
The law firm reckons that, because the charges have already been found to be illegal, all it has to prove is the amount of money that they cost British shoppers.
High profile consumer groups such as Which? and MoneySavingExpert.com have also agreed to follow the progress of the proposed claim and keep consumers updated.
The Commission claimed Mastercard’s fee system was anticompetitive and artificially increased prices for consumers.
About 46 million people in Britain could potentially benefit from a legal case brought against MasterCard demanding 14 billion pounds ($19 billion) in damages for allegedly charging excessive fees, according to court documents filed in London.
“MasterCard lost this battle at every level and showed complete disregard for its cardholders and consumers at large, focusing instead on generating unlawful profits”, Quinn Emanuel said in a statement.
The suit, one of the first to be filed under the country’s new class action regime, will seek compensation.
“It is not clear how MasterCard can now turn around and argue the opposite to prevent our case from succeeding”, he added.
“We deliver real value through the benefits of security, convenience and consumer protection, and we are committed to investing in our payment services in order to continue to meet the rapidly evolving needs of all our customers”.
Any hearing on the case is not expected until early 2018.
During the case, the company itself even argued that the charges were passed on to consumers.
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Funds linked with Chicago-based Gerchen Keller Capital, the world’s largest litigation funder, will provide up to £40m to fund the litigation.
