Mastercard sued in record €16.5bn UK damages case

Some 46m people in the UK could potentially benefit from a case brought against Mastercard demanding £14bn (€16.5bn) in damages for allegedly charging excessive fees, according to court documents.

The legal case, brought by a former chief financial services ombudsman, alleges the company charged unlawfully high fees to stores when shoppers swiped their debit or credit cards and these were passed on to consumers in higher prices.

Mastercard is alleged to have done this for 16 years between 1992 and 2008, in more than 600 pages of documents filed at London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal.