Amsterdam District Court Delivers Victory for Interchange Overcharge Foundation in Collective Action Against Visa and MasterCard Over Excessive Transaction Fees
Amsterdam — The Amsterdam District Court this week in two rulings against Visa and MasterCard delivered a decisive procedural victory for the Dutch Interchange Overcharge Foundation in a collective action alleging that both parties colluded and charged Dutch merchants excessive interregional transaction fees (MIFs) for accepting payments with non-European credit cards.
The class action was first brought by Scott+Scott Amsterdam in 2025 under the Dutch class action regime WAMCA on behalf of the Interchange Overcharge Foundation, that represents Dutch merchants and business owners.
The Court not only sided with the Foundation that "excessively high Interregional MIFs must be classified as initial and direct damage occurring at the place where a transaction is carried out in which payment with a Mastercard is accepted, and not—as Mastercard argues—as purely financial loss" — it also ruled that the Foundation’s argument that both cases falls under Dutch jurisdiction is valid:
"All of the foregoing leads to the conclusion that—contrary to Visa’s argument —the Foundation is not engaging in improper "forum shopping" or otherwise abusing its right to sue. Indeed, it is correctly invoking the "anchor defendant" rule set forth in Article 7(1) of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure."
Finding that it has jurisdiction in the claim against both Visa and Mastercard, the Amsterdam District Court ordered Visa and Mastercard to file a statement of defense later this year.
To find out more about this lawsuit, the Interchange Overcharge Foundation and how to register to claim damages, please visit: https://interchangeovercharge.nl/.