A proposed £700 million collective legal action has been brought before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), alleging that Visa and Mastercard charged UK businesses excessive fees for processing remote payments from customers in the European Economic Area (EEA).
The opt-out claim, brought on behalf of approximately 126,000 UK businesses, concerns interchange fees applied to online and other remote card transactions. The claimants allege that the payment companies significantly increased these charges following the UK’s departure from the European Union.
The proceedings add to growing legal scrutiny of payment card fees and their impact on businesses. They also follow earlier competition litigation involving Mastercard, including the landmark Merricks v Mastercard claim, which was settled for £200 million in 2024.
The latest action has been brought by Ann Pope, a former senior director at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). She is represented by competition law specialists Geradin Partners. Details of the litigation funding arrangements have not been made clear publicly.
The proposed claim covers UK-based businesses that have accepted online payments from customers using cards issued in the EEA at any point since October 2020. It alleges that interchange fees on these transactions increased substantially after Brexit, leaving businesses facing higher payment-processing costs.
Pope said that Europe remains an important market for many British companies, which regularly accept online payments from customers based in the EEA. She argued that the fees charged on these transactions increased fivefold following Brexit and said the claim seeks to recover what the businesses allege they were wrongly required to pay.
David Gallagher, a partner at Geradin Partners, said Visa and Mastercard play a significant role in the payment systems relied upon by businesses. He argued that the increases in interchange fees following Brexit had caused harm to UK businesses and pointed to previous Competition Appeal Tribunal findings concerning the competition implications of interchange fee arrangements.
The dispute also comes amid regulatory attention to payment-processing costs. The UK payments regulator has proposed a price cap on certain interchange fees, although the proposal has not yet been implemented and remains under consideration.
Visa and Mastercard have disputed the basis of the claim. A Mastercard spokesperson said the company strongly disagreed with the allegations, arguing that interchange fees support the wider UK payments system and help ensure secure and efficient transactions for businesses and consumers.
The spokesperson also criticised the proceedings as speculative and suggested that the case reflected a wider trend towards funder-backed collective litigation. Mastercard linked its objections to proposed government reforms concerning opt-out class actions.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal will be central to determining whether the proposed claim can proceed and how the allegations should be addressed. The allegations remain disputed, and the claim itself does not establish that Visa or Mastercard has acted unlawfully in relation to the transactions covered.
The case highlights the continuing legal debate over payment card fees, competition in financial services and the ability of businesses to seek compensation for alleged overcharging. Its progress could have implications for UK companies that rely on international online payments and for the future treatment of collective competition claims.
