UK card fee claim targets Visa and Mastercard over alleged overcharging

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UK card fee claim targets Visa & Mastercard

Highlights

Law firms Harcus Parker and Hausfeld seek Competition Appeal Tribunal approval for a group claim alleging Visa and Mastercard overcharged UK merchants through excessive multilateral interchange fees from 2020 to 2026.
The claim could be worth about £5 billion including interest, with automatic inclusion for UK businesses, organizations, and charities under £100 million in revenue, unless they opt out.
Visa and Mastercard reject the allegations amid broader payments sector legal scrutiny, following their $167.5 million U.S. class action settlement related to ATM access fees last year.

Competition claim and fee dispute

As first reported by The Guardian, law firms Harcus Parker and Hausfeld have applied to the Competition Appeal Tribunal to pursue a group claim alleging that Visa and Mastercard stifle competition and charge excessive multilateral interchange fees on customer card payments.

The case focuses on fees set by the two card networks and paid by businesses through their banks whenever customers use debit, credit or prepaid cards. Those behind the claim argue that limited competition leaves merchants exposed to higher charges, with sources close to the action estimating the case could be worth about £5 billion, including interest, for the period between 2020 and 2026.

The litigation is funded by Bench Walk Advisors, a London-based legal finance firm, and is led by Stephen Allen, a former travel sector executive who has been pursuing related group actions against Visa and Mastercard since 2021.

Potential reach and wider payments impact

If the tribunal allows the application to proceed, businesses, organizations and charities in the UK with less than £100 million in revenue would be automatically included unless they choose to opt out. Their individual claims could amount to several thousand pounds, while larger companies would need to opt in and could seek far larger sums over the claim period.

Both card companies are rejecting the allegations. Mastercard says the case is speculative and argues interchange supports the UK payments ecosystem by helping people and businesses pay and get paid quickly and securely, while Visa says interchange remains a critical part of maintaining a secure digital payments system that benefits consumers, merchants and banks.

The action is likely to take years to resolve if it moves forward. The timeline reflects the broader legal pressure on the payments sector, with Visa and Mastercard having agreed last year to pay a combined $167.5 million to settle a U.S. class action that accused them of conspiring to keep ATM access fees artificially high.

Our earlier article on SEON’s expansion in the Philippines covered how the fraud-prevention firm is targeting banks, remittance providers and payments businesses as digital finance grows and compliance requirements tighten. We noted that its partnership with Exist Software Labs is designed to help it enter more traditional banking segments by combining SEON’s cloud tools with local market data and relationships.

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