UK: MasterCard can’t appeal Sainsbury’s £68 million win

The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal has denied MasterCard’s bid to appeal its July judgment awarding UK grocery chain Sainsbury’s Supermarkets damages of more than £68 million in its suit over the credit card company’s interchange fees.

Sainsbury’s won its claim against MasterCard in September, with the CAT ruling the payment processor must pay it £68.5m in damages. The ruling was the first major interchange fee decision in the competition court.

The claims follow a US settlement in 2012 in which Visa and MasterCard agreed to pay US retailers $7.25bn – the largest antitrust settlement in US history.

The UK litigation was also sparked by a 2007 EU regulatory ruling accusing MasterCard of artificially inflating fees and over-charging retailers on cross-border card transactions. The UK Government subsequently launched a consultation on interchange fee caps, which will come into force in the New Year.

Now the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal has rejected MasterCard’s application for permission to appeal the court’s 14 July judgment. This judgment found  that the credit card company’s UK multilateral interchange fee scheme led to an anticompetitive overcharge for the customers of supermarket Sainsbury’s.

Full Content: Competition Appeal Tribunal

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