The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal awards £8.6 million damages and finds that an undertaking setting of national multilateral interchange fees for its payment cards infringed national and EU competition law on anticompetitive agreements (Sainsbury’s / MasterCard)

On 14 Jul the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) issued its judgment in the damages claim brought by Sainsbury's against MasterCard. The CAT found that MasterCard's setting of UK multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) for its payment cards infringed the Article 101 TFEU/Chapter I prohibition on anti-competitive agreements, and awarded damges of £8.6m, plus interest. Significantly, this is: the first time the CAT has awarded damages in an Article 101 TFEU/Chapter I claim; the CAT's highest award of damages o date; and its first judgment in a 'stand-alone' competition claim. The case is the first in which a UK court has given judgment on the crucial question of the passing-on 'defence', with the CAT seting a relatively high bar for defendants wishing to invoke this. It is also the first