Mastercard reaches 'agreement in principle' to settle mass UK fees case

LONDON (Reuters) - Mastercard has reached an agreement in principle to settle a collective London lawsuit brought on behalf of British consumers over card fees, it said on Tuesday.

The global payments processor was facing a lawsuit brought by consumer champion Walter Merricks on behalf of approximately 46 million adults in the United Kingdom.

The case became the first mass consumer action to be approved in the UK in 2021 after a nearly five-year journey from the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) to the UK Supreme Court and back.

Mastercard said that, during the latest round of the case at the CAT on Tuesday, it was announced the company and Merricks – as the representative of the claimant class – had reached an agreement to settle the case, subject to the tribunal's approval.

The CAT said in its most recent judgment in October that the value of the entire claim was stated by the claimants' lawyers to be about 10 billion pounds ($12.7 billion).

A person familiar with the agreement, however, said the figure of the settlement was around 200 million pounds.

"We are pleased to have reached an agreement in principle to put this case behind us," a Mastercard spokesperson said in a statement.

Merricks said in a statement: "I am very pleased that after nearly nine years of litigation with Mastercard, I have agreed a settlement that I believe will deliver meaningful compensation to class members who choose to come forward to participate in the distribution of the damages."

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Mark Potter)

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