2LT International News

LONDON, England: A London court this week approved a $14 billion-plus class action suit against global payments processor Mastercard that could see 46 million British adults receive roughly 300 pounds each if successful.

The decision to finally authorize the five-year-old lawsuit as a collective action could soon set the scene for a string of other proposed class-action lawsuits that have been stalled in its wake.

The suit was brought by former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks, who said, “Mastercard has thrown everything at trying to prevent this claim going forward, but today its efforts have failed,” as reported by Reuters.

Mastercard said the “spurious” claim was being driven by lawyers and backed by organisations “primarily focused on making money for themselves”.

Merricks alleges Mastercard charged excessive “interchange” fees the fees retailers pay credit card companies when consumers use a card to shop – between May 1992 and June 2008 and that those fees were passed on to consumers as retailers raised prices.

“Mastercard is confident that over the coming months a review of key facts will further significantly reduce the size and viability of the claim,” Mastercard said in a statement.