Mastercard facing £14bn damages claim from UK consumers

US card company Mastercard will defend a legal claim against it to the tune of £14bn from UK consumers in pursuit of damages for anti-competitive swipe fees.

The claim was filed in the Competition Appeal Tribunal, and it is only the second of its kind in the UK that is similar to the US class action lawsuit.

A ruling by the European Court of Justice in 2014 affirmed that the European Commission had been right in 2007 to condemn so-called multilateral interchange fees on cross-border transactions.

In 2007, the European Commission ruled that Mastercard's fee system was anti-competitive, allowing banks to charge higher fees to consumers and providing them with an incentive not to issue cards from Mastercard's competitors.

The case is being brought by Walter Merricks and his law firm Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, who said that the follow-on claim "need only prove the damage consumers suffered as a result of Mastercard's behaviour."

The credit card company have continued to deny the wrongdoing and will contest the case.

"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," Mastercard said.