
Mastercard users to receive £70 in compensation
Millions of Mastercard users could get up to £70 each after a court ruled that historic fees charged by the provider to be unfair. The decision comes after a long-running legal case going back a decade, brought forward by a former financial ombudsman.Walter Merricks argued that shoppers were charged higher prices after fees were wrongly levied on transactions made over a 15-year period between 1992 and 2008.Mastercard has been approached for comment.
Mr Merricks said that, despite retailers paying the fees, shoppers had lost out as retailers passed on these costs in the form of higher prices.The former financial ombudsman launched his claim after the European Commission ruled in 2007 that Mastercard's "multilateral interchange fees" charged to businesses had infringed competition law since the year 1992.He alleged that 46 million shoppers in Britain were overcharged. The fees were paid by retailers accepting Mastercard payments, rather than by consumers themselves.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Sun
17 minutes ago
- The Sun
Terrifying message sent by ‘Chinese hackers' to M&S boss after crippling cyber attack on British retailer is revealed
'CHINESE hackers' allegedly sent a terrifying message to the boss of Marks & Spencer following a crippling cyber-attack on the British retailer. Fraudsters, believed to be from the hacking group DragonForce, are said to have emailed the company's chief executive Stuart Machin and seven other key executives. 2 2 The message, written in broken English, was sent on April 23, indicated that M&S was hacked by the ransomware group, although the retailer has not acknowledged this. 'We have marched the ways from China all the way to the UK and have mercilessly raped your company and encrypted all the servers,' the hackers wrote, according to the BBC. 'The dragon wants to speak to you so please head over to [our darknet website].' The link to the darknet shared in the email led to a portal for victims of DragonForce to negotiate a ransom fee. The hackers added: 'Let's get the party started. Message us, we will make this fast and easy for us.' DragonForce's attack during the Easter holiday has been hugely damaging for one of Britain's best-known retailer and is thought to have cost the firm an estimated £300million. After six weeks on from the attack, the retailer is still unable to process online orders. The email was sent to Mr Machin along with seven other top executives, according to the corporation. A racist term is also said to have been included in the blackmail message and also ended with an image of a fire-breathing dragon. Along with installing ransomware in order to cripple M&S's IT system the hackers are also believed to have stolen private data from millions of customers. Three weeks on from the attack, M&S informed customers that contact details and dates of birth from some shoppers had been obtained by a suspected cyber cartel. M&S also admitted other personal details, including customers' order histories, had also been pilfered by online criminals. Bosses though have stressed that no data relating to shoppers' payment, card details or account passwords had been obtained. It is unclear how many customers have been affected by the data breach. According to the company's full-year results, it had 9.4million active online customers in the year up to March 30. The email apparently sent by DragonForce is thought to have bene sent using the account of an employee from IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which has provided IT services to the retailer for more than a decade. The Indian IT worker, who is based in London, had an M&S email address but is paid employee of TCS. Timeline of the attack Saturday, April 19: Initial reports emerge on social media of problems with contactless payments and click-and-collect services at M&S stores across the UK. Customers experience difficulties collecting online purchases and returning items due to system issues. Monday, April 21: Problems with contactless payments and click-and-collect persist. M&S officially acknowledges the "cyber incident" in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. CEO Stuart Machin apologises for the disruption and confirms "minor, temporary changes" to store operations. M&S notifies the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and engages external cybersecurity experts. Tuesday, April 22: Disruptions continue. M&S takes further systems offline as part of "proactive management". Wednesday, April 23: Despite earlier claims of customer-facing systems returning to normal, M&S continues to adjust operations to maintain security. Contactless payments are initially restored, but other services, including click-and-collect, remain affected. Thursday, April 24: Contactless payments and click-and-collect services are still unavailable. Reports surface suggesting the attackers possibly gained access to data in February. Friday, April 25: M&S suspends all online and app orders in the UK and Ireland for clothing and food, although customers can still browse products. This decision leads to a 5% drop in M&S's share price. Monday, April 28: M&S is still unable to process online orders. Around 200 agency workers at the main distribution centre are told to stay home. Tuesday, April 29: Information suggests that the hacker group Scattered Spider is likely behind the attack. Shoppers spot empty shelves in selected stores. Tuesday, May 13: M&S revealed that some customer information has been stolen. Wednesday, May 21: The retailer said disruption from the attack is expected to continue through to July. It's thought the worker was among the victims hacked. The company had previously said it is investigating if it was a gateway for the cyber attack. It has since informed the BBC the email was not sent from its system and had nothing to do with the security breach. M&S has declined to comment on the latest revelations.


The Guardian
22 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Bargain Hunt expert jailed for offences under Terrorism Act
A BBC Bargain Hunt art expert who failed to report a series of high-value art sales to a man suspected of financing the militant group Hezbollah has been jailed for two and a half years. Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, sold artworks worth a total of about £140,000 to Nazem Ahmad, a man designated by US authorities as a suspected financier for the Lebanese organisation, a court hearing was told last month. Ojiri, of Brent, north London, previously pleaded guilty to eight offences under section 21a of the Terrorism Act 2000. He is believed to be the first person to be charged with the specific offence. The art dealer, who has also appeared on the BBC's Antiques Road Trip, was charged with failing to disclose information about transactions in the regulated art market sector on or before dates between October 2020 and December 2021. US prosecutors say Ahmad was a 'major Hezbollah financial donor' who used high-value art and diamonds to launder money and fund the group. Ahmad is accused of evading terrorism sanctions by using front companies to acquire more than $160m (£120m) in artwork and diamond services. After the introduction of new money-laundering regulations in January 2020 that brought the art market under HMRC supervision, Ojiri is said to have discussed the changes with a colleague, indicating awareness of the rules. The court previously heard the total value of the artworks sold was about £140,000. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb sentenced Ojiri to two years and six months in prison at the Old Bailey on Friday, with a further year to be spent on licence.


Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
Falling LME copper stocks inflate premium for nearby contracts
LONDON, June 6 (Reuters) - Concerns about the nearby supply of copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) due to falling stocks in LME-registered warehouses has created a premium for nearby contracts against those with longer maturities. The discounts for nearby LME copper contracts against longer dated forwards flipped into premiums a month ago as higher COMEX prices than on the LME continued to attract metal. The premium of the cash LME copper contract over benchmark three-month futures was last at $75 per ton after jumping to $93 on Thursday's close, highest in two and a half years. This compares with a discount of $63 in early April. "The backwardation indicates that there is some kind of a shortage. Because normally it is in contango," said Dan Smith, managing director at Commodity Market Analytics. Total copper stocks in the LME warehouse system have halved since mid-February to 132,400 tons, the lowest in almost a year. Available stocks, those not marked for delivery, at 54,600 tons are the lowest since July, 2023. The sharp move in the spread on Thursday was caused by fresh cancellations in LME stocks, said Alastair Munro, senior base metals strategist EMEA, at broker Marex. The premium eased on Friday as there were no major new cancellations of warrants, title documents that confer ownership, in Friday's data, he said, even though stocks kept on leaving the LME-registered warehouses. Fuelling worries are recent mine supply disruptions and traders diverting copper metal to the U.S. while Washington investigates the potential for import tariffs on copper. Even though there is no dominant holder of the LME copper warrants ahead of the expiry of contracts on the third Wednesday of the month - something which could concern the market, as of June 4 one party held more than 90% of copper cash contracts, helping to keep the premium elevated.