A collective proceedings declare value greater than £700 million has been filed in opposition to Visa and Mastercard on the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, alleging the 2 card networks exploited the removing of EU interchange caps following Brexit to levy illegal inter-regional charges on UK companies accepting on-line funds from European Economic Area clients.
The declare is introduced by Ann Pope, a former Senior Director for Antitrust on the Competition and Markets Authority, performing by her automobile Ann Pope Collective Proceedings Limited and represented by pan-European competitors legislation agency Geradin Partners. The proposed class covers roughly 126,000 UK companies that accepted distant funds from EEA-issued playing cards at any level since October 2020. Inclusion within the motion is opt-out moderately than opt-in, that means companies are robotically enrolled until they select to withdraw.
The price improve on the centre of the declare
Before the tip of the Brexit transition interval, inter-regional interchange charges have been topic to EU caps. After these caps ceased to use to UK companies, the Payment Systems Regulator discovered that Visa raised its UK-EEA on-line transaction price five-fold in October 2021, transferring from 0.2% to 1.15% for shopper debit playing cards and from 0.3% to 1.5% for shopper bank cards. Mastercard adopted in April 2022 with equal will increase.
The declare argues this was not a professional business response to modified market circumstances. The UK remained a part of the Single Euro Payments Area after Brexit, that means the underlying value construction of processing EEA-issued card transactions didn’t change materially. The PSR has itself concluded that Visa and Mastercard confronted no efficient aggressive constraints on the buying facet of their networks when setting these charges, and has proposed a worth cap that is still beneath energetic consideration however has not but been carried out.
Geradin Partners companion David Gallagher famous that the CAT had already discovered inter-regional interchange price preparations to limit competitors in a separate case. “Visa and Mastercard have great power over the payments that businesses rely on every day,” he stated. “Our claims seek redress for UK businesses who, we say, have suffered harm as a result of Visa and Mastercard’s conduct.”
Market and regulatory context
The scale of potential legal responsibility displays the financial weight of UK-EU commerce. The declare cites 2025 figures displaying UK exports to the EU at £384 billion, representing 41% of all UK exports. For any enterprise promoting items or companies to European customers on-line, EEA-issued playing cards are successfully unavoidable: the PSR discovered Visa and Mastercard collectively deal with 9 in ten on-line transactions at UK companies the place the shopper holds an EEA card.
The case lands at an energetic second for interchange regulation within the UK. The PSR’s ongoing evaluate of cross-border interchange, mixed with the CAT’s prior findings on inter-regional charges, offers the declare a comparatively agency regulatory basis in contrast with many collective proceedings actions. That stated, the quantum of £700 million-plus represents estimated amassed overcharges throughout a broad class over a number of years, and remaining compensation, if awarded, would rely on the CAT’s evaluation of the counterfactual price stage and the person damages attributable to class members.
The motion additionally sits inside a broader European sample. Several large-scale service provider interchange claims have proceeded earlier than the CAT and in different EU jurisdictions over the previous decade, usually on the again of prior competitors authority findings. The Pope declare is notable for being filed after a home regulator, moderately than the European Commission, recognized the precise post-Brexit price improve as problematic. That sequence could strengthen the declare’s prospects on the certification stage, although Visa and Mastercard are anticipated to contest each legal responsibility and the category definition.
Affected UK companies can register curiosity at eeacardclaim.co.uk.
AI stage 1 of 5: written by Darlyn Ho; AI helped with tone, construction or wording; edited and signed off by Mark Walker, Editorial Director. What the levels mean
