Retail Brands Seek Compensation from Visa, Mastercard, Claiming High Fees

Several big retail brands, including Levi, Superdry and AllSaints, are looking for compensation from Visa and Mastercard over the payment companies’ controversial transaction fees, a Telegraph report says.

The fashion chains are following Amazon’s lead – last month, the eCommerce titan said it wouldn’t let customers use Visa credit cards on the site in Britain due to the “high fees” after Brexit.

This comes after the Supreme Court said last year that Visa and Mastercard’s fees were a breach of both EU and U.K. competition laws. Supermarket chains Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons were some of the first to take the company to court, with Sainsbury’s settling with Mastercard in August, but not with Visa yet.

The report says there’s no concrete amount for the damages proposed yet.

According to some unnamed industry insiders in the report, it wasn’t surprising that there were more companies coming out to sue Visa and Mastercard. But some say they might settle out of court before the outcome of the original cases by next year.

Mastercard was quoted as saying retailers “derive real value from our network and we are committed to supporting our retail partners to adapt and grow their businesses through this challenging time.”

PYMNTS reported last month that Amazon’s ban on U.K. Visa cards on the site was going into effect.

See more: UK-Issued Visa Credit Cards No Longer Accepted by Amazon Starting 2022

The report said customers would be able to use Visa cards and others outside of the U.K.

A spokesperson called the cost of accepting card payment a continuing obstacle for “businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers.”

“These costs should be going down over time with technological advancements, but instead they continue to stay high or even rise,” the spokesperson told Bloomberg.

The card fee issue has been an ongoing point of contention, with retailers having a problem with the way the companies spend billions accepting electronic payments, while fees keep on getting higher, particularly when customers use premium cards with higher interchange rates.