Consumers who made purchases from businesses selling in the UK between 1992 and 2008 could be affected by a collective consumer claim against Mastercard.

This website has been created to provide information about a proposed collective consumer claim against Mastercard that has been filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal by Walter Merricks CBE (the proposed class representative) on behalf of a proposed “class” of individuals.

The proposed claim relies on a legal finding of the European Commission that Mastercard imposed unlawful fees on transactions processed through its network. These fees were paid by businesses for accepting payments made with a Mastercard credit or debit card in the period 1992 to 2008. More than half a million businesses in the UK, including major supermarkets, that accepted Mastercard cards in the relevant period, paid these unlawful fees, and it is alleged passed these on to consumers in higher retail prices.

The proposed claim says that if between 22 May 1992 and 21 June 2008 you purchased goods and/or services from businesses selling in the UK that accepted Mastercard cards, at a time at which you were both (1) a resident in the UK for a continuous period of at least three months, and (2) aged 16 years or over, you paid higher prices as a result of Mastercard’s unlawful conduct. It is proposed that the claim will be brought on behalf of a class of individuals who meet these conditions with the exception of the categories of persons described in FAQ 6.

Mr Merricks’ application for a collective proceedings order was remitted to the Competition Appeal Tribunal for redetermination, and a hearing took place on 25-26 March 2021 to consider whether the claim should be allowed to proceed. Judgment following that hearing was handed down on 18 August 2021, with the Tribunal finding that Mr Merricks’ claim was both eligible and suitable to be certified as a collective proceeding, the first of its kind in English legal history. A case management hearing is expected to be held in Autumn 2021, at which the Tribunal will rule on the timetable for next steps in the proceedings.