Partially upheld: Service failures generally complaint against Sumup Payments Limited

Decision detail

Summary

T, a charity, purchased 11 card terminals from SumUp for its cashless fundraising event on 16 July 2022. SumUp imposed a £5,000 transaction limit without explicitly notifying T in advance. The terminals stopped working one hour into the event after reaching this limit, causing T to lose approximately £25,000 in potential donations and merchandise sales. The ombudsman found SumUp treated T unfairly by failing to communicate the limit clearly, but held that T failed to mitigate losses by not attempting to contact SumUp on the day. The ombudsman awarded £4,000 compensation for one hour of lost card payments, rejecting T's claim for the full £25,000 and arguments based on the chief executive's vulnerability.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

SumUp failed to treat T fairly by not explicitly communicating the £5,000 verification limit before the event, despite T reasonably believing the account was ready to use based on SumUp's June 2022 confirmations. However, T failed to mitigate its losses by not attempting to contact SumUp on the day of the event when the terminals stopped working. The ombudsman found it reasonable to expect at least one volunteer to contact SumUp, and that SumUp could likely have resolved the issue within one hour if contacted. Therefore, SumUp is held responsible only for one hour of lost card payments, not the full amount claimed. The ombudsman rejected arguments about Ms S's vulnerability, finding that SumUp was not informed of any communication difficulties and that alternative contact methods (webchat) were available.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website