Musgrave to join action over anti-competitive card fees

British Courts previously ruled that 'intercharge fees' breach both EU and UK competition laws

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Musgrave is joining a legal action to seek compensation from Visa and Mastercard over the charging of ‘intercharge fees’ to retailers.

Last year, intercharge fees applied by Visa and Mastercard to retailers for every card transaction were found in the British Courts to breach both EU and UK competition laws.

The Irish Times reports Musgrave has told retail franchise partners that it is joining a legal action, which involves other retailers allow the group’s fellow litigants were not named.

The latest move follows the precedent set in the original case last year.

The case will be heard in the the British courts, with law firm Stephenson Harwood and consultants CMS Payments Intelligence (CMSPI) are advising the plaintiffs.

Musgrave has said it believes that taking the claim in the UK courts will result in the best chance of winning compensation for having to pay anti-competitive interchange fees.

While Musgrave has invited franchise partners to join the action, the group said that every retailer needs to decide for themselves if they wish to participate. Musgrave has also said that that it is unable to give legal advice or direction about making this decision.

The retail group said fees are anticipated to be no more than 40% of any settlement received from the card companies.

Musgrave has also cautioned retailers that an industry-wide compensation scheme could potentially take place in the future but joining the class action would rule retailers out of participating in any such programme.

However, Musgrave added that it is “currently not aware of any such redress compensation scheme being proposed or planned”.

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