Bernard Arnault’s sprawling business empire has launched a raft of legal claims against Visa and Mastercard amid an ongoing row over credit card fees.
More than a dozen luxury brands that form part of the French billionaire’s LVMH conglomerate have issued lawsuits against the US payment giants in the High Court.
The claimants include high-profile names such as Tiffany & Co, Christian Dior and Bulgari, as well as hotel business Belmond, which operates the Venice-Simplon Orient Express.
All the brands are owned by Paris-listed LVMH, which is ultimately controlled by Mr Arnault, the world’s richest man with a net worth of around $214bn (£171bn).
Details of the case are yet to be made public although the claims are understood to be linked to the long-running battle over so-called interchange fees.
These fees are paid by retailers to banks when they accept card payments via Visa or Mastercard.
However, companies have long argued that the fees charged by the two payment providers are anti-competitive, costing them billions of pounds and driving up prices for consumers.
This has led to separate claims from businesses such as Vodafone, Ocado and Fortnum and Mason, all of which are locked in various High Court proceedings against Visa and Mastercard.
A trial to hear their claims will be heard at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in November.
Visa and Mastercard have persistently defended claims across different courts and countries, as they argue that the fees are regulated and designed to recognise the value provided by electronic payment networks.
The issue has also sparked a consumer class action claim against the businesses estimated to be worth around £10bn.
Mastercard has described the claims as “fundamentally flawed” and argued that they should be thrown out.
Since 2015, interchange fees have been capped at 0.2pc for debit cards and 0.3pc for credit cards.
LVMH, Mastercard and Visa declined to comment.
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