Mastercard Ordered to Pay Delivery Hero $44 Million by UK Court

Upmanyu Trivedi, Bloomberg News

The headquarters of Delivery Hero SE in Berlin, Germany, on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2022. Delivery Hero is among the biggest gainers in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index this quarter, up 46% since June 30, as the company takes out some of investors’ most dire concerns one by one. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- German food delivery company Delivery Hero SE won a UK court ruling, netting it $43.6 million from Mastercard Inc for a payment-processing deal that went sour last year.

Delivery Hero had sued Mastercard in December last year after the credit card giant terminated a deal to process payments, alleging the online food delivery company failed to meet certain conditions and violated the contract.

Mastercard must pay the $40-million sign on bonus to the German company along with interest of $3.58 million for the broken contract, the UK court ruled in a judgment on Wednesday.

The ruling is boost for Delivery Hero, which is on path to turn an operating profit in the second half of this year, according to Diana Gomes of Bloomberg Intelligence. The shares rose 3.2% in German trading as of 1:38pm local time.

Mastercard struck the deal in October 2021 to encourage use of its payment service on Hero’s delivery platform. The fee for processing the payments depended on the volume of transactions processed, and Mastercard’s lawyers had argued that conditions for the sign on bonus were not met before the contract was terminated.

Delivery Hero and Mastercard didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comments.