The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio

JPMorgan's exec shuffle might lead to the bank's first female CEO

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What are the chances of us all getting £300 off Mastercard?

Mastercard charges allegedly resulted in consumers overpaying by £14bn. The company disputes the claim. Photograph: Thomas White/ReutersMastercard charges allegedly resulted in consumers overpaying for goods in shops to the tune of £14bn, and if a class action is successful, it will mean payouts worth up to £300 for 46 million people. That’s according to the former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks – though this is hotly disputed by Mastercard – following a court of appeal ruling in his favour this week.But what is the likelihood of you finding the cash in your account any time soon? Let’s take a closer look at the quality of this case.The claimant This is not from some individual with a beef against Mastercard. It has been put together by Merricks, a solicitor who was the inaugural chief ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service when it was set up by parliament in 1999. He held the post until 2009, by which time the organisation was dealing with 160,000 complaints from the public with a staff of more than 1,000 people and a budget of £90m.His office handled Equitable Life, pensions mis-selling and endowment mis-selling. If you were Mastercard, Merricks is about the last person you’d want to go up against in a consumer lawsuit. This is very good news for the 46.2 million people who have been “opted in” to the giant claim, the biggest in UK legal history.The company The golden rule of legal action is only go for companies with a deep enough pocket to pay up. Mastercard has a stockmarket valuation of £190bn (Warren Buffett is a significant shareholder), and had a profit of £5bn in 2017. We can safely assume it can find the money.The overcharging This dates back to a ruling by the European commission in December 2007, when it said Mastercard had broken competition rules because its interchange fees charged at retail outlets inflated costs to consumers. Although the charges were paid by the retailers, the costs were passed on to consumers, says Merricks. Visa is not included in the lawsuit because it agreed with the EC to cut its fees in 2002.Mastercard says it “disagrees fundamentally with the basis of the claim, and we believe UK consumers receive real value from the security, convenience and consumer protection of our payment services”.The progress through the courts Initially the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which decides whether a case is worthy to go to court, rejected Merricks’ case. But this week the court of appeal sent it back to the CAT, saying it had erred in law. The CAT still has to certify the case, but the presumption among many lawyers is that it will now go ahead. Progress is likely to be slow – we’re talking 2021 at the earliest.The calculation of loss This is the major hurdle, and one reason why the CAT initially rejected the case. How do you quantify each person’s loss? How much did a supermarket pass on these fees in the form of higher prices? Or did it absorb the costs? Even if you found that consumer prices were raised, by how much did they rise? These are the issues a court will grapple with – especially after the tribunal initially said “there is no plausible way of reaching even a very rough-and-ready approximation of the loss suffered by each individual claimant”.The compensation award Any payout won’t just be sent to all our bank accounts. If the case is successful, individuals will have to actively apply for their £300 or so. Claims could be made by anyone over the age of 16 who was a resident in the UK for three months or more between 1992 and 2008.The likely outcome? Mastercard will be under intense pressure to make a generous settlement offer before this reaches court – potentially within the next few months. Many think that’s the most likely result now. So will I and millions of others get that £300 cheque? Put it this way, if I were offered £150-200 now but had to relinquish any future claim against Mastercard, I’d probably take the money. But I wouldn’t forgo my claim for much less. This case has legs.

Delta Frequent Flyers Are Fans of Less Seat Recline, More Laptop Room

Put these flyers into the recline haters’ camp. Recent limitations to seat recline that Delta Air Lines is planning for some flights are being warmly welcomed by many frequent flyers on the carrier. The Atlanta-based airline announced last week that it would limit the amount of seat recline on some flights by about 50 percent, […] The post Delta Frequent Flyers Are Fans of Less Seat Recline, More Laptop Room appeared first on Skift.

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