A litigation funding package was launched yesterday to back at least 27 companies in the second round of claims alleging that Mastercard and Visa overcharged retailers by £300 million.
Leading high street names are lined up to seek damages from the credit card companies, alleging that they infringed domestic and European competition law by setting and implementing “multilateral interchange fees”.
Lawyers at Humphries Kerstetter, the London niche litigation practice, confirmed that funding had been arranged with Therium Capital Management, a City and Jersey-based third party funder.
Katherine Gray, a senior associate at the law firm, confirmed that claim forms had been issued in the High Court and that they were likely to be served “in the next few months”.
Among the names preparing to sue are the Co-op, Nandos, the restaurant chain, Hobbs, the fashion group, Greene King, the brewery, and JD Wetherspoon, the pub chain.
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A spokeswoman for Therium told The Times that the figure for the damages claimed would rise as other retailers were likely to join the action. She said that one well-known business was interested in joining the suit.
Mastercard said a similar claim from a group of large retailers was recently rejected by the High Court.