General Chat

I think this might be worth investigating if you ever shop at a supermarket.


Millions of consumers could get up to £70 each after a court ruled historic fees charged by card provider Mastercard were unfair.

The decision comes after a long-running legal case going back almost a decade, brought forward by a former financial ombudsman.

Walter Merricks argued that shoppers were charged higher prices after fees were wrongly levied on transactions made over a 15-year period between 1992 and 2008.

It is not necessary to have owned a Mastercard at any point to be eligible for compensation.

Mastercard has been approached for comment.

Who can claim?

Consumers are eligible to claim compensation if they lived in England, Wales or Northern Ireland for at least three months between June 1997 and June 2008, and bought goods or services from UK businesses that accepted Mastercard credit cards.

For those who live in Scotland, the starting point is May 1992.

The judgement ringfences £100m for consumers who have until the end of this year to claim and if the expected 5% of claimants - 2.5 million people - come forward, then each will receive £45.

If fewer people apply, payments will be capped at £70 per claimant.

Mr Merricks said consumers would soon be able to register to receive a payout by completing an online form.

He launched his claim after the European Commission ruled in 2007 that Mastercard's "multilateral interchange fees" charged to businesses had infringed competition law since 1992.

The fees were paid by retailers accepting Mastercard payments, rather than by consumers themselves.

But Mr Merricks said that, despite retailers paying the fees, shoppers had lost out due to the charges being passed on through higher prices for goods and services.

He alleged that 46 million shoppers in Britain were overcharged.

The entire settlement is for £200m.

I think our cards were Visa in those days.

It doesn't matter what your cards were. If the shop used Mastercard, you are eligible.

Do you mean fees charged if you did not pay the full amount due?

If not, does the judgment refer to part of the selling price of the goods in question - ie out of the profit made by the middleman?

The latter would indicate that you need not have used a Mastercard I should think and it would mean everyone who ever bought anything at all because there’s always a mark-up price, that is unless you bought a loss-leader item.

According to the article, which is a BBC report, there are 46million people eligible and they are calculating on 5% actually applying, so yes, JL, your last paragraph is correct.

The retailer paid Mastercard and then raised prices to cover the cost, so all customers were being "overcharged" and are entitled to a share of the payout.