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Mastercard Ruling: How you can make £300

Moneymagpie Team 29th Apr 2019 3 Comments

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This is truly an unprecedented moment in British legal history. A London court has paved the way for a £14bn lawsuit against Mastercard to go ahead. This comes as a huge surprise as it means that literally every adult in the UK would be eligible for a payout. The payout would be averaging around £300. Imagine that. £300 and you don’t have to do a thing. Of course, this is far from over.

Mastercard have very, very good lawyers, you can be sure about that. And they don’t like losing money. Thus, we’re very sure they will do everything possible to avoid a £14 billion hit.

what are mastercard being taken to court over and by who?

The claim is brought by former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks. It alleges that more than 46 million people overpaid on purchases because of Mastercard’s high fees.This occurred over a 16-year period between 1992 and 2008. Furthermore, they breached EU competition law, resulting in an estimated £14.6bn detriment to consumers, the claim alleges.

Indeed, Walter Merricks has had his say on the ruling:

“I am very pleased with today’s decision. It is nearly 12 years since Mastercard was clearly told that they had broken the law by imposing excessive card transaction charges, damaging consumers over a prolonged period.

“When challenged, all they have done is to raise technical legal arguments that turn out to have no merit – as the court of appeal has shown today. It’s now time for Mastercard to admit the damage they did, to apologise to the British public, and to agree to pay the compensation they owe.”

We love the sound of that Walter. We hate it when big players in finance rip off those who work hard and want to use their services for their hard earned money. Hopefully this will pave the way for more rulings of a similar nature!

Mastercard has said it continues to “disagree fundamentally with the basis of the claim”. They added: “This decision is not a final ruling, and the proposed claim is not approved to move forward; rather, the court has simply said a rehearing on certain issues should happen”.

Who will benefit

If Mastercard loses the case, anyone who can prove they were in the UK for those 16 years could be due a payout. That’s a lot of people!

Also, even if you didn’t have a Mastercard, because all shops that accepted Mastercard would have charged higher prices it means you could still be eligible for compensation. Go get ’em Walter!