Major credit card provider paying out millions in compensation to customers after landmark legal battle

MASTERCARD is set to pay out millions in £47million in compensation to customers after a landmark legal battle.

A deal has now been approved by the courts, meaning impacted customers will be entitled to a compensation payout worth up to £70 each.

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It's understood anyone with a Mastercard will be able to claim and we are checking the specifics.

The move comes after a long running case which was put forward almost a decade ago.

Walter Merricks, a former financial ombudsman, first launched the legal claim in 2016.

He alleged that 46million shoppers in Britain were ripped off after fees were wrongly levied on transactions made over a 15-year period between 1992 and 2008.

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These fees were paid by retailers accepting Mastercard payments, rather than by consumers themselves.

But Mr Merricks claimed shoppers had lost out as retailers passed on these fees in the form of higher prices.

The lawsuit was a first of its kind in the UK, often referred to as a "class action", after new rules were brought in under the UK's Consumer Rights Act 2015.

It allows courts to treat similar claims as one rather than having hundreds or even thousands of separate individual cases.

Mastercard has proposed a £200milllion settlement in return for the legal action being dropped, with no admission of liability.

The amount and further details of how much individuals could get have been revealed in fresh legal documents.

The figure remains lower than the £10billion to £15billon that Merricks claimed shoppers were originally owed.

Commenting today, Walter said he started this case because he believed that Mastercard’s fees paid by retailers for processing card transactions had been "unlawfully high".

He went on to add that "virtually all UK consumers had lost out for long by periods paying higher prices than they should have done as retailers passed on those costs".

He added: "As the evidence came to be known through the litigation process, this was the position only in a relatively small proportion of transactions and the settlement reflects that."

"The settlement that has today been finally approved represents a fair and just outcome for UK consumers."

Will I get a payout from Mastercard?

You should be part of the claim automatically if all of the following apply, unless you previously opted out:

• You lived in England, Wales or Northern Ireland for at least three months between June 20, 1997 and June 21, 2010, or
• You lived in Scotland for at least three months between May 22, 1992 and June 21, 2010
• You bought something with a Mastercard credit card between the dates above
• You were older than 18 and living in the UK on September 6, 2016

As the deal have now been approved, Mastercard will pay the money within 28 days.

We have approached Mastercard for a comment

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This will then be distributed to those eligible, but it's not clear yet how that process would work, or when people would see the money, as it's the first case of its kind.

There's still a possibility that the claim is not approved or is delayed, in what has already been a lengthy legal fight.