In the long-running saga of Merricks v Mastercard, the Administrative Court has now given permission to the litigation funder, Innsworth Capital, to challenge the distribution of the £200 million settlement paid by Mastercard. This is the first case in which a Competition Appeal Tribunal’s decision on settlement of collective proceedings has been challenged and will be carefully watched by both litigation funders and those involved in bringing or defending collective proceedings.

The CAT, chaired by its former President, Roth J, gave its ruling in May 2025 ([2025] CAT 78). Linden J, in a reasoned judgment following a contested permission hearing on 11 February 2026, accepted the funder’s case that it had arguable grounds to challenge the CAT’s decision in three respects:

  • Its decision to award the funder only a 0.5x return on its investment of over £45 million. This would result in Innsworth receiving a profit of about £23 million, under 12% of the total settlement, whereas under the CAT’s decision a legal charity with no prior connection to the case stands to receive £30 million or more. Linden J accepted that there was a clear case that the CAT had misread the Australian case law on which it relied to justify that figure.
  • Its decision to award the class represented by Mr Merricks half of the gross settlement sum i.e. £100 million. Innsworth contends that the CAT should have considered the net proceeds after payment of the costs.
  • Its refusal to reimburse Innsworth for the amount it had paid to settle with the original funder which had pulled out at an early stage when certification had been refused.

A Divisional Court will now hear the judicial review, expected to be later in 2026. The hearing will be the first time that the courts have considered the principles applicable to collective action settlements, and is particularly timely given the ongoing Government review. The case has implications for the future of the UK collective action regime and third party funding, and has received extensive press coverage nationally and internationally.

Charles Béar KC and Jacob Turner acted for the successful claimant, Innsworth Capital Limited, instructed by Akin Gump LLP.