Card-accepting merchants in the UK have been urged to join a multi-billion class action against Visa and Mastercard over “excessive” fees, with only two weeks left to opt-in.

Retailers, charities, universities, travel and hospitality companies, and football clubs, as well as others, have already joined the claims.

Businesses pay multi-lateral interchange fees (MIFs) to their banks when they accept customer payments through a credit or debit card.

The Class Representatives, two English law companies bringing the claims, allege that businesses overpay interchange fees when customers pay via credit or debit card, causing them a loss.

It says that across the UK, losses are estimated to be at least $4 billion.

The move comes after the Competition Appeal Tribunal allowed the class action to progress in August last year.

The Tribunal has set a deadline for large businesses to join the legal claims of 10 February.

Large businesses are those which had an average annual turnover of £100 million or more in 2016-2019.

"MIFs [multi-lateral interchange fees] are like a tax on businesses and charities, increasing the cost of accepting commercial card payments," said Stephen Allen, director of the Class Representatives. "This claim enables justice for years of being squeezed by these global card schemes."

He continued: "The thousands of people who donate online or support UK charity shops will be shocked and disappointed to learn how much money charities have lost because of excessive card fees. We hope Mastercard and Visa will stop punishing charities who accept commercial card payments by removing these onerous fees."

Jeremy Robinson, a partner at Harcus Parker, representing the Class Representatives said that class action litigation is the best way to ensure Mastercard and Visa stop "unlawful charges" on businesses.

Visa declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

FStech has approached Mastercard for comment.

The news comes after Mastercard reached an agreement in principle in December, to settle a groundbreaking legal claim brought on behalf of approximately 46 million UK consumers, who alleged the payments company imposed unfairly high transaction fees.

The landmark case, initiated by consumer champion Walter Merricks, a former financial ombudsman, has been one of the most significant mass lawsuits in the United Kingdom.

After nearly nine years of litigation, the proposed settlement is understood to be worth around £200 million, substantially lower than the original £10 billion sought by claimants.

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) also recently proposed a price cap on cross-border card fees as the authority raised concerns about competition in the market.

Mastercard and Visa raised their cross-border interchange fees fivefold from 0.2 per cent to 1.15 per cent for debit cards and 0.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent for credit cards over the course of 2021 and 2022.

In December, the regulator published the findings of its market review, revealing that neither payments giant was subject to effective competitive constraints, which allowed the companies to raise their fees to an "unduly high level".

The month before, reports suggested that the European Commission was investigating whether Visa and Mastercard fees are having a negative impact on retailers.

An EU document seen by Reuters revealed that the Commission sent out questionnaires to retailers and payment service providers (PSPs) about the payments giants in September.

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