Visa and Mastercard threatened with potential £5bn UK lawsuit over fees

Visa and Mastercard are being threatened with a potential £5bn lawsuit for allegedly stifling competition and charging UK businesses excessive fees.

The law firms Harcus Parker and Hausfeld have lodged an application at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in hopes of pursuing a group claim that would compensate companies who, they claim, have been overcharged on customer card payments since October 2020.

The claim will centre on multilateral interchange fees, which are set by Visa and Mastercard and then paid by businesses through their banks every time a customer pays by card. The argument is that the lack of competition has left businesses at their mercy – and paying higher fees on debit, credit and prepaid cards – as a result.

The case will hope to claw back fees charged over the past six years, as well as interest on those losses. Sources close to the claim estimate that it could be worth about £5bn, based on the number of businesses allegedly overcharged between 2020 and 2026.

A spokesperson for Mastercard defended the interchange fees, saying the potential group claim was “speculative” and part of a “growing trend of opportunistic funder-backed litigation”.

The case is being funded by Bench Walk Advisors, a London-headquartered firm that launched in 2017 and makes money from backing lawsuits. It is being led by Stephen Allen, a British businessman and former travel sector executive who has been pursuing Visa and Mastercard through a number of group legal actions since 2021.

If the application is successful, an estimated 1m UK-based businesses, organisations and charities with less than £100m in revenues will be automatically included for compensation, unless they opt out. Their claims could be worth several thousands of pounds each.

Larger businesses would have to actively opt in to be included in the claim, and could be due tens of millions over the claim period.

However, it could take years for the case to reach a conclusion. Visa and Mastercard last year agreed to pay a combined $167.5m to settle a class action lawsuit in the US which accused the two companies of conspiring to keep ATM access fees artificially high. That lawsuit was originally filed in 2011.

Commenting on the latest group claim application, a Mastercard spokesperson said: “We strongly disagree with the basis of this claim. Interchange plays a vital role in supporting the UK payments ecosystem, and ensures people and businesses can pay and get paid quickly and securely.

“This speculative claim does nothing to support UK businesses or consumers and instead reflects the growing trend of opportunistic funder-backed litigation. It is exactly the type of claim the UK government’s recently announced proposed opt-out class action reforms [put out for consultation this summer] are directed at preventing.”

A Visa spokesperson said: “Visa continues to believe that interchange is a critical component to maintaining a secure digital payments ecosystem that benefits all parties, including consumers, merchants and banks.”