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The
case, which dates back to 1992, was brought by retailers
Sainsbury's <SBRY.L>, Morrisons <MRW.L> Asda <WMT.N> and Argos
and relates to the charges Visa <V.N> and Mastercard <MA.N> levy
on the retailers when cardholders make a transaction - so called
default multilateral interchange fees (MIFs).
The UK Supreme Court upheld the finding of the Court of Appeal
in July 2018 that the MIFs charged within the Visa and
MasterCard payment card schemes was an unlawful restriction of
both European Union and UK competition law.
The ruling means the retailers can proceed to a trial to decide
compensation.
Morgan Lewis partner Frances Murphy, the lead counsel for
Sainsbury’s, said retailers could potentially receive billions
of pounds in damages.
"Sainsbury’s will now be seeking to recover the full amount of
the unlawful charges it has incurred," Murphy said.
Kate Pollock, head of competition litigation at Stewarts, which
represented Morrisons, Asda and Argos, said her clients "look
forward to a swift resolution of the matter without further
delay.”
However, Mastercard said the Supreme Court’s decision was not a
final ruling and there will be further court hearings to
determine the key issues raised.
It said these hearings will most likely not take place until
2021.
"We continue to firmly believe that retailers of all sizes
derive real value from our network," it said.
Visa said it was "disappointed that the Supreme Court did not
agree with the previous High Court ruling that Visa’s UK
interchange complies with competition law."
"Visa supports the decision to send the matter to a specialist
tribunal so that the evidence can be properly considered."
(Reporting by James Davey and Huw Jones, editing by Louise
Heavens)
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