If You've Used A Credit Card Over The Last 30 Years You Could Get £450 Soon

Almost 40 million users of credit cards in Britain could awarded £450 because of legal action being taken against MasterCard making 'unfair charges' to customers that amounted to over £14 billion.

Today, collective action was launched, accusing the company of setting punitive transaction fees for retailers between 1992 and 2008, The Mail reports.

The claim was filed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. It is being led by former financial services ombudsman Walter Merricks, and the US law firm Quinn Emanuel.

Walter Merricks said: "MasterCard charged billions of pounds of unlawfully high fees for its sole benefit and to the detriment of consumers. It has already been found to have broken competition law, the basis of which was to protect consumers, and that cannot be disputed.

"The filing of this claim is the first step towards consumers obtaining compensation for what MasterCard did.

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"I am confident that the CAT will authorise the claim to go forward, and I look forward to the opportunity to present our case.

"This is a watershed moment for consumer redress in this country."

Due to the nature of the action being taken, all UK consumers who have used MasterCard credit cards, cheque, cash or any other payment method for purchases during that period and are living in the UK automatically become part of the claim.

And even consumers no longer living in the country, but who were here in the time period, will be able to opt into the claim.

In 2014 the European Court of Justice declared that the fees were a violation of EU anti-trust rules.

However, MasterCard said: "Now that the claim has been filed, we will take time to review it in detail. However, we continue to firmly disagree with the basis of this claim and we intend to oppose it vigorously.

"We deliver real value through the benefits of security, convenience and consumer protection, and we are committed to investing in our payment services in order to continue to meet the rapidly evolving needs of all our customers."

If the claim is successful, it will be around three years before compensation is paid out.

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James Dawson

James Dawson is a Journalist at LADbible. He has contributed articles to LADbible’s ‘Knowing Me, Knowing EU’ series on the EU referendum, the 'Electoral Dysfunction' series on the 2017 general election, the ‘U OK M8?’ series tackling mental health amongst young men, and for its ‘Climate Change’ initiative in partnership with National Geographic.

@thejaytoday