{"id":124582,"date":"2026-08-22T07:50:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T06:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/?p=124582"},"modified":"2026-08-22T04:35:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T03:35:01","slug":"millions-of-consumers-born-before-1992","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/millions-of-consumers-born-before-1992\/","title":{"rendered":"Millions of Consumers Born Before 1992 Could Be Owed up to \u00a370 After Mastercard Ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The case was brought by former Financial Ombudsman Walter Merricks <\/strong>on behalf of consumers who were alleged to have paid higher retail prices because of Mastercard interchange fees. According to the official Mastercard Consumer Claim website, the settlement was approved by the Competition Appeal Tribunal after years of litigation, allowing the proceedings to move towards distributing the agreed sum among class members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who Can Claim Under the Mastercard Settlement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eligibility depends on where a person lived, their age during the relevant period and whether they bought goods or services from businesses that accepted Mastercard cards. People do not need to have owned or used a Mastercard themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Mastercard Consumer Claim website<\/a>, consumers qualify if they lived in Scotland for a continuous period of at least three months between 22 May 1992 and 21 June 2008, or in England, Wales or Northern Ireland for at least three continuous months between 20 June 1997 and 21 June 2008. They must also have been aged 16 or over during those three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eligible consumers must have bought goods or services for non-business purposes from retailers that accepted Mastercard cards. Supermarkets <\/strong>are specifically included in the examples given by the claim website. Applicants must also have been living in the UK on 6 September 2016 and must not previously have opted out of the legal action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mastercard payout eligibility for millions of UK consumers \u00a9 Shutterstock<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The age and residence rules mean that eligibility is closely tied to a person’s circumstances during the relevant years rather than whether they were a Mastercard customer. According to reports, people meeting the conditions <\/strong>could qualify even if they had never held a Mastercard and would not need to provide proof of individual purchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Much Consumers Could Receive and When Claims May Begin<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The \u00a3200 million settlement was agreed by Merricks and Mastercard in December 2024 and later approved by the Competition Appeal Tribunal<\/strong>. A dispute then emerged over how the settlement should be divided between consumers and litigation funder Innsworth Capital, delaying the launch of the claims process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to reports, Innsworth had sought a larger share of the settlement, arguing that consumers should receive no more than \u00a34.50 each. The High Court dismissed its challenge in June 2026, while the Tribunal subsequently authorised payment <\/a>of just over \u00a363 million to the funder on 31 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The claims portal is now expected to open in the coming months. Eligible consumers are expected to have six months to apply through an online form, providing details including their name, date of birth, address, email address, telephone number and banking information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Payments will depend on the number of successful applicants. If about 2.2 million people claim, the estimated payment is \u00a345 each. If fewer people apply, individual payments could rise to a maximum of \u00a370. Any money remaining after the distribution would go to the Access to Justice Foundation<\/strong>. Official information about the application process will be published through the Mastercard Consumer Claim website when claims open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Millions of UK consumers could receive between \u00a345 and \u00a370 each from a \u00a3200 million settlement agreed in the long-running legal action against Mastercard. The claims process has not yet opened, but payments are expected to follow during the first half of next year once eligible consumers have been able to submit applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":124585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124602,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124582\/revisions\/124602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}