The payment card provider has agreed to pay £200million to settle a case against it – with millions of people due up to £70 each
Millions of Brits could be forced to wait months for compensation from Mastercard due to a new legal challenge. The payment card provider has agreed to pay £200million to settle a case against it – with millions of people due up to £70 each.
Walter Merricks, the former financial ombudsman, argued that 46 million shoppers were ripped off after fees were wrongly levied on transactions between 1992 and 2008.
The fees were paid by retailers accepting Mastercard payments, rather than by customers themselves – meaning you don’t necessarily need to have owned a Mastercard to be eligible for compensation.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal gave its final approval last month – but now, it has been revealed that the online claims portal is being delayed following a legal challenge from a company called Innsworth.
Innsworth helped fund the case but is now trying to challenge how these funds will be split. MoneySavingExpert.com reports that this could see payments delayed by months.
You may be eligible for payments if you lived in England, Wales or Northern Ireland for at least three months between June 1997 and June 2008, and you bought goods or services from UK businesses that accepted Mastercard credit cards.
If you live in Scotland, the starting point is May 1992. The judgment has ringfences £100million for consumers, and if the expected 5% of claimants – 2.5 million people – come forward, then they will receive £45 each.
If fewer claimants come forward, then payments will be capped at £70 per claimant. Once the legal challenge is resolved, an online claims portal will be launched at MastercardConsumerClaim.co.uk.
Commenting on the original outcome of the case, Mr Merricks said: “I started this case because I believed that Mastercard’s fees paid by retailers for processing card transactions had been unlawfully high and virtually all UK consumers had lost out for long periods by paying higher prices than they should have done as retailers passed on those costs.
“As the evidence came to be known through the litigation process, this was the position only in a relatively small proportion of transactions and the settlement reflects that.
“The settlement that has today been finally approved represents a fair and just outcome for UK consumers. On any view, recovering £200 million by way of a settlement for UK consumers is a huge sum, and that will translate into a meaningful impact in the pockets of UK consumers.”
