Mastercard Sued by 300 Hotel Companies in UK Over Swipe Fees

According to Law360, the hotel companies are challenging Mastercard over multilateral interchange fees, or MIFs, associated with payments made using its cards.

Interchange fees are generally paid by a merchant’s bank to the bank that issued a customer’s card when a transaction is processed. They form part of the overall cost merchants bear for accepting card payments.

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The lawsuit alleges that Mastercard’s arrangements governing those fees restricted competition and caused the hotel companies to pay higher charges than they otherwise would have.

The claim was filed on Wednesday and names around 300 hotel companies as claimants. The amount of damages being sought was not immediately available.

Read more: Merchants Challenge Visa and Mastercard Protections in New Antitrust Suit

The case is the latest in a long-running series of disputes over Mastercard’s interchange fees. In February, the Competition Appeal Tribunal issued a further ruling addressing how businesses responded to changes in payment costs, an issue relevant to assessing losses in interchange-fee claims.

The new lawsuit adds hundreds of hotel companies to the legal battle over the economics of card payments, although the number of corporate claimants does not necessarily correspond to the same number of hotel brands or individual properties.

The identities of the hotel businesses involved, the period covered by their claims and the Mastercard entities named as defendants should provide a clearer indication of the scope and potential value of the lawsuit.

Source: Law360