Royal Bank of Canada is involved in a class action brought against all of the major issuers and the VISA/MasterCard credit card networks in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. The central issue is whether the interchange fees paid by merchants in the Visa and MasterCard networks are lawful. The Plaintiffs seek damages for the difference between the interchange fees they have paid and the lower interchange fees they say they would have paid had the allegedly anti-competitive conduct not occurred.
This is likely the largest civil claim in Canada at this time. Similar US actions settled for approximately US$7 billion. In November 2016, the Supreme Court of British Columbia refused the Plaintiffs’ application to amend its notice of civil claim to add a claim for the breach of the current s. 45 of the Competition Act.
Geoffrey Cowper, Q.C., Andrew Borrell, Paul Martin, Alexandra Mitretodis and Layne Hellrung represent Royal Bank of Canada.