In a significant legal challenge, Mastercard appealed to a London appellate court on Thursday, contesting the jurisdictional basis of a mammoth £10 billion class action lawsuit regarding its swipe fees. The crux of Mastercard’s argument is that the jurisdiction covering the bank that processed the payment should govern the lawsuit, not the jurisdiction of the customers who incurred the losses.
The Tribunal’s Original Decision
The Competition Appeal Tribunal previously ruled that the claims, alleging that millions of British consumers paid inflated prices due to Mastercard’s excessive swipe fees, should be governed by the local laws of the consumers in either England and Wales or Scotland. This decision was a setback for Mastercard, which now seeks to partly overturn this ruling.
Mastercard’s Legal Strategy
Mastercard argued that the tribunal’s decision contradicts established precedents. The company highlighted a 2018 High Court ruling in Deutsche Bahn v. Mastercard, where it was determined that the restriction of competition was the significant damage, not the losses to the suing companies. Mastercard contends that similar principles should apply in the current case, with the acquiring bank’s location being pivotal.
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