Mastercard, Visa can appeal UK ruling that merchant fees breach antitrust law

Visa and Mastercard can challenge a judgment that found their ​default multilateral interchange fees charged to ‌retailers infringe competition law, London’s Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday, in a long-running ​legal battle over the charges.

The Competition ​Appeal Tribunal ruled last year, in linked ⁠lawsuits brought by hundreds of merchants, ​that Visa and Mastercard’s multilateral interchange fees ​breached European competition law.

The merchants’ lawyers previously said that was the first time Visa and ​Mastercard’s commercial card and inter-regional multilateral ​interchange fees had been found to infringe competition ‌law.

But ⁠the Court of Appeal granted permission to appeal on Tuesday, in a decision welcomed by Mastercard and Visa.

The companies ​said in ​separate statements ⁠that interchange plays an important role in a digital ​payments ecosystem and provides benefits to ​consumers, ⁠businesses and banks.

Cian Mansfield, from law firm Scott+Scott, which represents the claimants, said: “We ⁠are ​confident that we will ​resist the application successfully at the substantive appeal”.