A collective proceedings declare price 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 way of her car 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 somewhat than opt-in, which means companies are mechanically enrolled except they select to withdraw.
The price enhance on the centre of the declare
Before the top 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, shifting from 0.2% to 1.15% for client debit playing cards and from 0.3% to 1.5% for client bank cards. Mastercard adopted in April 2022 with equal will increase.
The declare argues this was not a official industrial response to modified market situations. The UK remained a part of the Single Euro Payments Area after Brexit, which 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 value cap that continues to be underneath energetic consideration however has not but been carried out.
Geradin Partners associate 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 mentioned. “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 providers 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 assessment 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 mentioned, the quantum of £700 million-plus represents estimated gathered overcharges throughout a broad class over a number of years, and closing compensation, if awarded, would depend upon the CAT’s evaluation of the counterfactual price degree 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, sometimes on the again of prior competitors authority findings. The Pope declare is notable for being filed after a home regulator, somewhat than the European Commission, recognized the particular post-Brexit price enhance 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 degree 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
