Payments giants Visa and Mastercard are staring down the barrel of a compensation claim brought on behalf of a group of UK companies which could exceed £7.5 billion.

According to Sky News, Harcus Parker, a London-based commercial litigation law firm representing the unnamed companies, is close to filing what it believes could be ‘among the biggest’ competition compensation claims in UK history.

The filing at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) alleges that Mastercard and Visa overcharged businesses for multilateral interchange fees (MIFs), which are paid to their banks for accepting card payments.

The lawsuit will contest that the MIF fees are set by Mastercard and Visa themselves, rather than by market forces, and are imposed on banks as a condition of their participation in the the card schemes.

"We are standing up for UK businesses - big and small - and demanding that they be properly compensated," Thomas Rose, a partner at Harcus Parker told Sky News.

He added: "These fees are unlawful and should be abolished."

It is understood that Harcus Parker’s case is fully-insured and being funded by litigation funder Benchwalk Advisers. Harcus Parker has selected a claim period from 2017 to the date of judgement award - or settlement, according to Sky News.

Various institutions are regulators are beginning to clampdown on unclear card charges. Barclays was recently hit with an £8 million fine over a ‘lack of transparency’ by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) for ‘failing to comply’ with dictates of the Interchange Fee Regulation.

While niggles evidently persist, Chris Hemsley, managing director of the PSR said at the time that “it’s vital that retailers and consumers get value for money on payment services.”

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