The record-making lawsuit is one of the first ever US-style ‘op-out’ class actions to be filed in the UK under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan is bringing the claim against MasterCard on behalf of the company’s UK customers, seeking collective damages of around £14bn for ‘unlawfully high’ interchange fees charged to retailers between 1992 and 2008. The claim posits that retailers were forced to pass on the cost of interchange fees to MasterCard customers, resulting in an estimated several hundred pounds’ worth of damages for each MasterCard customer in the UK. The class action marks the biggest claim in UK legal history, and is due to be filed by Quinn Emanuel in the next fortnight.

MasterCard taps Freshfields

Following a competitive tender process for the lucrative defence, MasterCard has chosen Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer competition partner Jon Lawrence to lead the company into battle. With a list of clients that includes the London Stock Exchange, Lloyds of London and Ericsson, one leading City litigator described Mr Lawrence to Legal Business as ‘the biggest gun in town.’ Mr Lawrence edged out Jones Day partner Nick Cotter, a longtime MasterCard adviser who has represented the company in several parallel cases involving high street retailers, in order to secure the historic tender.

Sources: The Lawyer; Legal Business