Adidas UK sues Mastercard and Visa in London High Court over card fees

Adidas’ UK operations have filed separate lawsuits against Mastercard and Visa in London’s High Court, adding another merchant claim to the long-running UK fight over interchange and related card-processing fees. For PSPs and acquirers, the important part is not the headline litigation count; it is that card acceptance costs are still being tested in court, and the bill is being disputed by merchants at scale.

1. According to MLex, the Adidas claims are part of a broader wave of merchant litigation against the two global payment networks over card-related fees. The exact details of Adidas’ claims were not immediately available, but the lawsuits were described as the latest development in a dispute that has already drawn in hundreds of merchants seeking compensation for alleged overcharges tied to card transactions.
2. The UK has already produced a landmark ruling in this area. In June 2025, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled that certain multilateral interchange fees imposed by Visa and Mastercard breached competition law. The tribunal said the fees created a non-negotiable component of the charges retailers pay to accept card payments.
3. The core issue is straightforward in structure, even if the legal arguments are not: interchange fees are charges connected to card transactions, and merchants ultimately bear them through payment acceptance costs. That makes the dispute relevant not only to retailers, but to every PSP and acquiring team that has to price card acceptance without guessing where the courts will land next.
4. The tribunal’s ruling was welcomed by merchant representatives. David Scott, global managing partner of Scott+Scott, called it “a significant win for all merchants who have been paying excessive interchange fees to Visa and Mastercard.”
5. The Adidas cases arrive while UK courts and competition authorities continue to examine whether interchange fees unfairly inflate the costs retailers face when accepting card payments. In other words, this is not a closed chapter; it is still an active pricing and liability issue for the UK card ecosystem.