australian watchdog sues allegedly misusing card

“Reducing costs for businesses enables them to offer their customers better prices. The ACCC is now seeking declarations, penalties, costs, and other orders. “We are concerned that Mastercard’s alleged conduct meant that businesses did not receive the full benefit of the increased competition that was intended to flow from the least cost routing initiative.” “We allege that Mastercard had substantial power in the market for the supply of credit card acceptance services, and that a substantial purpose of Mastercard’s conduct was to hinder the competitive process by deterring businesses from using Eftpos for processing debit transactions,” ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said. The ACCC alleges that in response the least-cost routing initiative, Mastercard entered into agreements with more than 20 major retailers, including supermarkets, fast food chains, and clothing retailers, to offer cheaper interchange rates for processing credit card payments if they agreed to process Mastercard-Eftpos debit card transactions through the Mastercard network, rather than the Eftpos network, even though Eftpos was often the lowest cost provider. The least-cost routing initiative aimed to give merchants the ability to choose which debit card network processed their contactless dual-network debit card payments - whether that was Mastercard, Visa, or Eftpos - and was intended to increase competition in the supply of debit card acceptance services, while reduce payments costs associated with processing debit card payments for businesses.įor dual-network debit card payments, the fees paid by a merchant can vary depending on the debit card network used for processing the transaction. The consumer watchdog alleges between November 2017 to at least November 2020 that Mastercard had a “substantial degree of power” in the market for the supply of credit card acceptance services under the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) least-cost routing initiative. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has started legal proceedings in the Federal Court against Mastercard Asia Pacific and Mastercard Australia for alleged anti-competitive conduct that substantially lessened competition in the supply of debit card acceptance services.

Australian watchdog sues allegedly misusing card