Court of Appeal unanimously dismisses Mastercard interchange fee appeal

The UK’s Court of Appeal has today dismissed Mastercard’s appeal against the Competition Appeals Tribunal decision in which a class action law suits was bought against the company for unfair interchange fees.

Court dismisses Mastercard interchange fee appeal

As a result, approximately 3 million individuals who died between September 2016 (when we filed the claim) and August 2021 (when the Tribunal issued its judgment certifying the claim) will be succeeded by the personal/authorised representative of their estate.

This ensures that compensation can be recovered for such individuals and that Mastercard does not obtain a “windfall from the Tribunal’s original erroneous judgment refusing to certify the claim” and the subsequent lengthy appeals.

Any individuals who died after August 2021 will also be succeeded, which was not in issue in this appeal.

“Today’s unanimous appeal judgment from the Court of Appeal, finally brings to an end the battle to get the collective proceedings certified, a battle that started over six years ago,” said Boris Bronfentrinker, lead partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher representing Mr Merrick.

The scope of the class represented by Mr Merricks is now settled. Along the way, Mastercard has brought a number of appeals, all of which have proven to be unsuccessful, and served to only delay these collective proceedings on behalf of UK consumers.

Mr Merricks is pleased with today’s judgment and looks forward to now prevailing on the merits to secure the billions in damages owed by Mastercard to UK consumers.”

Judge Julian Flaux said the overall purpose of the collective proceedings were to “provide access to justice for individual claimants who would not otherwise be able to obtain legal redress”.

“The effect of Mastercard’s case would be to thwart, at least to a significant extent, the overall purpose of the regime,” Flaux added

A spokesperson for Mastercard said: “We will continue to fight it [the case] and are confident that, once the facts are presented in court, the case will be thrown out.”

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