Mastercard `Preying on Millions’ Sparked $17 Billion Fee Lawsuit
- Consumers seek permission to bring U.K.’s largest class action
- Mastercard says damages would be impossible to calculate
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Mastercard Inc. preyed on more than 46 million unknowing consumers by unfairly charging card fees over a 16-year period, lawyers seeking to bring a 14 billion-pound ($17.2 billion) class-action lawsuit told a London court.
The credit-card company infringed European Union competition law by imposing high charges to retailers that accepted its cards between 1992 and 2008, Paul Harris, a lawyer for consumers, told the Competition Appeal Tribunal Wednesday. The panel will hold a two-day hearing to decide whether the matter should go to a full trial. It would be the U.K.’s biggest class action and one of the first filed under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.