U.K. Supreme Court Rejects Mastercard Challenge to $18.5 Billion Class-Action Lawsuit

Mastercard (NYSE: MA) has suffered a setback in a potentially damaging case being heard in Europe. The U.K. Supreme Court rejected the company's request to force individual suits over interchange fees in the country, rather than the 14 billion pound ($18.5 billion) class action case currently being considered. The vote on the request was close, with three of the five ruling judges voting against it, and two in favor.

The sprawling lawsuit alleges that the intra-European merchant interchange fee Mastercard charged for personal cards restricted competition in the market over a 16-year period ending in late 2007.

The European Commission -- the governing body of that continent's European Union economic bloc -- made such a ruling in December 2007. In the U.K., it was used as the basis of a case brought by a government ombudsman to a lower court in 2016.

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Source Fool.com